Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 23 May 2018

Cuba's new leader breaks from past with public appearances

Associated Press ernment performance and
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ and programs but there has
MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, been no announcement of
HAVANA (AP) — For half any new government poli-
a century Fidel Castro cy or presidential decision.
seemed to be everywhere Diaz-Canel hasn't even yet
in Cuba — inspecting fac- appointed his own cabi-
tories, farms and offices, net, deciding to operate
expounding to the press with Raul Castro's until July.
and zooming to the scenes Still, the change in style has
of natural disasters to direct been dramatic."I like seeing
the minutest details of the him this way," said Adonis
response. Garcia, a 47-year-old state
His brother Raul was a mili- worker. "What shocked me
tary man who operated was that I'd never seen a
from behind the scenes, Cuban president in civilian
rarely making speeches clothes at the scene of a
and going long stretches big event. I was used to Fi-
without appearing in pub- del in olive-green."
lic, even as he attempted Diaz-Canel took power on
historic reforms of Cuba's April 20 in a long-planned
economy and foreign poli- handover from Castro,
cy. A month after taking of- In this May 1, 2018 file photo, Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel holds a national flag while who announced years ago
fice, the Castros' successor watching the May Day parade file past at Revolution Square, in Havana, Cuba. that he would step down
as president of Cuba has Associated Press after more than a decade
broken from the immediate as president, which be-
past, and made clear to Cubans saw of the ac- cases are being attended focus hasn't been ideologi- gan after Fidel Castro was
Cubans that he will be op- cident was a photo of a to," Diaz-Canel told state cal declarations, but rather brought down by illness
erating far more like a con- grim-faced Diaz-Canel media after visiting the be- practical things." in 2006. Fidel Castro died
ventional modern politician striding through the wreck- reaved. Diaz-Canel isn't Raul Cas- in 2016. Unlike the Castros
than the spotlight-shy gen- age in shirtsleeves. Over Raul Castro, meanwhile, tro, but he isn't attempting and their cohort of aging
eral who selected him or the weekend, he made re- hasn't appeared in public to imitate Fidel either. Like former guerrillas who over-
the revolutionary coman- peated visits to hospitalized for more than a week, after many modern politicians, threw strongman Fulgencio
dante who led Cuba for 47 patients, grieving family a May 8 appearance with Diaz-Canel's appearances Batista in 1959, Diaz-Canel
years before that. members, forensic investi- the U.N. secretary-general. remain tightly managed. made his career in the civil-
Miguel Diaz-Canel, 58, gators and the aviation of- Cuban officials said the Most are covered only ian ranks of the Communist
has set a whirlwind pace ficials leading the probe of 86-year-old leader is recov- by Cuba's state-run press, Party bureaucracy, serving
of public appearances the crash. ering from a planned her- and unlike the voluble Fi- as provincial party head,
since his first day in office On Sunday morning, after nia operation but is being del Castro, the president the equivalent of governor,
— promising improvement nearly 48 hours of crisis man- briefed on the tragedy and rarely takes questions or in the central and eastern
in trash pickup and public agement, he appeared offering advice on the gov- breaks from brief prepared provinces of Villa Clara
transportation, inspecting with helmet-clad emer- ernment's response. remarks. Most Cubans and Holguin before being
state cafeterias and health gency workers carrying out "Diaz-Canel is putting him- haven't heard their presi- named higher education
clinics, and now acting a disaster-preparedness self before the public so dent speak more than a minister and then first vice
as the public face of the exercise for the upcoming the public can see him. handful of times, and rarely president and Castro's pre-
government's response to hurricane season. Many of the places where saying more than a few sumed successor in 2013.
the air crash that killed 111 "I think that amid all the pain he shown up or the issues sentences. After assuming the vice
people when a Boeing 737 and consternation there's he's examined have to do There are no indications yet presidency, Diaz-Canel
rented by Cuba's national a lot of personal solidarity, with people's everyday of how Diaz-Canel will actu- became virtually invisible,
airline slammed into a farm and that personal solidarity concerns," said Jose Raul ally administer Cuba's stag- leading many who knew
field shortly after takeoff can be seen in the support Viera, a retired vice minis- nant economy and highly him to wonder what had
from Havana's airport on being given to the families, ter of foreign relations. "It's controlled single-party happened to the glad-
Friday. and it's expressed in the ef- putting him in contact with state. A month into office, handing bureaucrat from
The first image that many ficiency with which these people's everyday lives. His he has held reviews of gov- Villa Clara.q