Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez has been elected president of Cuba, officially ending the Castro family’s decades of domination of the country’s highest office.
The Communist Party formally announced the presidency’s transition from Raul Castro on Thursday, in what might better be described as a coronation than an election.
In fact, if there was any surprise at all, it might be that Diaz-Canel, the 57-year-old party stalwart long expected to succeed Castro, did not win every vote cast after the party nominated him its sole candidate Wednesday. Just 603 of 604 Cuban lawmakers voted for him in a secret ballot that night.
After the result was announced Thursday, Diaz-Canel and Castro mounted the dais in front of the National Assembly and embraced in a gesture both real and deeply symbolic.