{"id":119354,"date":"2021-04-19T12:49:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T04:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=119354"},"modified":"2021-04-19T12:49:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T04:49:09","slug":"cuban-party-electing-new-leaders-amid-generational-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=119354","title":{"rendered":"Cuban party electing new leaders amid generational shift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/AR-210419633.jpgmaxh332maxw504.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/AR-210419633.jpgmaxh332maxw504.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>HAVANA, April 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Delegates of Cuba\u2019s Communist Party elected a new Central Committee on Sunday, with an announcement due Monday on leadership as its historic congress closes with a sendoff for chief Raul Castro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the 89-year-old Castro steps down as first secretary of the Communist Party \u2014 the most powerful position in Cuba \u2014 it will end a nearly six-decade family hold on power that started in 1959 under his revolutionary brother, Fidel, who died in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The delegates \u201celected on Sunday evening the members of the CPC Central Committee, who will be responsible for electing the political leadership of the party,\u201d the CCP posted on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An announcement is expected Monday from the Central Committee, which will elect the powerful Politburo for the 2021-2026 period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As members of the post-revolutionary generation take power, Castro will yield power to the country\u2019s 60-year-old president, Miguel Diaz-Canel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two other revolution-era figures will also stand down: Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, 90, the party\u2019s number two, and Commander Ramiro Valdes, 88.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But even as younger Cubans rise to power, no major changes in policy are immediately expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most pressing on the congress\u2019s agenda is the economy, which plummeted by 11 percent in 2020 \u2014 the worst decline since 1993 \u2014 due in no small part to recent strengthening of the US embargo and the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Castro, however, committed the country to \u201crespectful\u201d talks with the US administration of Joe Biden. Ties with the United States had worsened under Biden\u2019s predecessor, Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his last major speech as party head, Castro on Friday called for \u201crevitalizing the process of updating the economic and social model,\u201d an initiative he began cautiously in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Castro told delegates on Friday that Cuba would not renounce \u201cthe principles of the revolution and socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cuba, with a population of approximately 11.2 million, faces recurrent shortages and must import 80 percent of what it consumes. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HAVANA, April 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Delegates of Cuba\u2019s Communist Party elected a new Central Committee on Sunday, with an announcement due Monday on leadership as its historic congress closes with a sendoff for chief Raul Castro. When the 89-year-old Castro steps down as first secretary of the Communist Party \u2014 the most powerful position in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":119356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119354"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}