19/04/2019

Mr. Díaz-Canel became Cuba’s new president on Thursday. Born one year after Fidel Castro’s forces took control of the island, Mr. Díaz-Canel is the first person outside the Castro dynasty to lead Cuba in decades. He was elected in a  nearly unanimous vote and on Thursday morning Mr. Castro embraced him, lifting the younger man’s arm in triumph.

Mr. Díaz-Canel grew up in the central province of Villa Clara. He was the son of a schoolteacher and a factory worker. He studied electrical engineering at the Central University of Las Villas, where he was active in political life. He was viewed as a rising star within Cuba’s Communist Party from a young age.

He joined the Union of Young Communists, the party’s youth league, where he stood out among his peers. He later worked as a bodyguard to Raúl Castro.

Mr. Díaz-Canel was asked what did he think of the revolution that defined the island’s politics, he replied: “I was born in 1960, after the revolution, I’m not the best person to answer your questions on the subject.”

"He is someone who has very little exposure to U.S. political or cultural figures,” Daniel P. Erikson, a former State Department official, said of Mr. Díaz-Canel. “Frankly, he isn’t that well-known in the rest of Latin America, either.”

Last year, a video was leaked of Mr. Díaz-Canel addressing a group of party officials. In the video he claims that Cuba had no responsibility to meet the demands of President Barack Obama.