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New Cuban regime to seek Castro’s guidance

— Photo: Xinhua

CHANGE YET CONTINUITY: Raul Castro casts his ballot during the presidential election in Havana on Sunday.

HAVANA: Cuba’s Parliament named Raul Castro President on Sunday, after nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel Castro.

Jose Ramon Machado was named Vice-President.

The retirement of Fidel Castro caps a career in which he frustrated efforts by nine U.S. Presidents to oust him, and Mr. Raul Castro stressed that his brother remains “Commander-in-Chief.”

He proposed to consult Mr. Castro on all major decisions of state — a motion approved by acclamation. Mr. Machado, who fought alongside the Castro brothers in the Sierra Maestra during the late 1950s, is a key Communist Party ideologue. New members on the governing Council of State also include two top generals close to Mr. Raul Castro and another revolutionary commander. In his first speech as President, Mr. Raul Castro suggested that the Communist Party as a whole would take over the role long held by Mr. Castro, who formally remains its leader.

“The Communist Party guarantees the unity of the Cuban nation,” he said, calling it “the worthy heir of the confidence that the people have deposited in their leader”. He said the nation’s sole legal party “is the directing and superior force of society and the state. This conviction has particular importance when the founding and forging generation of the revolution is disappearing.”

Mr. Raul Castro indicated at least one economic change is being contemplated: revaluation of the Cuban peso, the national currency.

Mr. Castro’s seat in the National Assembly was empty, but as the new National Assembly’s 614 members were read aloud, mention of the absent Mr. Castro drew a standing ovation.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reaffirmed his economic and political support of Cuba when he took a telephone call from Mr. Raul Castro after the session. Mr. Chavez also sent a message to his ally Mr. Castro, whom he visited numerous times during his illness.

“Fidel, Comrade,” Mr. Chavez said, “I send you a hug. You continue to be El Comandante.” With Sunday’s vote, Mr. Castro’s 49 years as head of a Communist state in America’s backyard came to an end. He retains his post as a lawmaker and is head of Cuba’s Communist Party.

The National Assembly, whose members were elected to five-year terms on January 20, chose a new, 31-member Council of State and its President, who serves as the head of state and government. The session closed with shouts of “Viva Fidel!”

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Chavez scoffed at the idea of a transition in Cuba, saying “the transition occurred 49 years ago,” from U.S.-dominated capitalism to socialism. “Things will remain calm, our course is clear,” said a policeman watching a television carrying Mr. Raul Castro’s first speech as President. — AP

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