Party Official Faces Test as Cuba’s Next President

 

Cuba’s National Assembly chose First Vice¹ President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as the only candidate for president of Cuba. Current President, 86-year-old Raul Castro, is set to resign Thursday.

Diaz-Canel would become the first person outside the Castro family to hold the highest government office in almost 60 years. The politician turns 58 on Friday.

Raul Castro, however, will remain first secretary of the Communist Party, a position that could be more powerful than president. How much influence Diaz-Canel will have is also an open question.

A Cuban President not named Castro?

As president, Raul Castro rides in a big, shiny, imported automobile². When he arrives at official events, people rise up from their seats to cheer.

However, that behavior was not seen recently as a crowd waited for the arrival of the man who will be Cuba’s next president.

Recently, voters and provincial³ officials waited near a voting station in the central city of Santa Clara for Diaz-Canel.

An hour passed, then another. Suddenly, people in the crowd began to move. Down the street, a tall man wearing a loose white shirt walked with his wife and a few bodyguards⁴ toward the voting station. Shaking hands and showing ease with voters, Diaz-Canel took his place in line.

“We’re building a relationship between the government and the people here,” he said after voting for members of Cuba’s next National Assembly. He added that elected officials must work at listening to the people, investigating their problems and supporting debate.

The new Cuban president will face an economy with little or no growth, public services in disrepair and a hostile administration in the United States. There is also widespread unhappiness with parts of Cuba’s centrally planned system of government.

The Associated Press says most Cubans think of the current first vice president as an average speaker who, at first, rarely appeared in public.

Diaz-Canel was raised and educated in the city of Santa Clara. He attended a local university, and completed his studies in 1982. He then performed three years of required military service. In 1987, he joined the Young Communists’ Union. Later, he became a professor of engineering at the University of Santa Clara. During that time, he went to Nicaragua as part of a government-led program to support that country’s revolution.

Serving the public by bicycle…

People in Santa Clara remember Diaz-Canel as a long-haired young man who liked the Beatles. Many Cuban officials considered the group representative of the corrupt⁵ culture of Cuba’s capitalist enemies.

Still, the young professor was named first party secretary in Villa⁶ Clara province in 1994. There he gained recognition as a hard-working public servant. He did not move into a new government provided home when he became first secretary. People in Santa Clara told the AP they could not remember another party official making such a choice.

Diaz-Canel traveled on a bicycle during the economic crisis that followed the collapse⁷ of the Soviet⁸ Union. He accepted visitors to his home and office at all times of the day and night to hear their criticisms or suggestions. He also worked with the local Committee for the Defense⁹ of the Revolution, a mix of a neighborhood watch committee and local militia¹⁰.

…And on the radio

In 1996, he began appearing on a local radio program during which he would take two hours of telephone calls from listeners. People would tell him about problems, everything from bad state-financed restaurants to damaged streets.

Radio reporter Xiomara Rodriguez said, “He undertook an intense effort to communicate with the people.”

Diaz-Canel also became known for pushing back against some of the ideas of the Communist Party.

As first secretary of Villa Clara, he actively¹¹ supported a cultural center called El Menjunje. It held rock and roll shows and activities for homosexual Cubans. Diaz-Canel was known for bringing his children with him to the center.

A rising Cuban politician

In 2003, Diaz-Canel was named first secretary of the eastern province of Holguin, where he faced opposition¹².

Some said he spent too much of his six years in office working to make the city center more beautiful. They argued the efforts kept him from answering the needs of poor and working people in the province.

In 2003, Diaz-Canel was also named to the Communist Party’s Politburo, a high-level policy making organization. Six years later, he was named minister of higher education and was praised for making educational programs more modern.

From administering to leading

He was also known as one of the first top party officials to bring a laptop computer to government meetings.

In 2012, Communist Party officials closed “Young Cuba,” a website operated by young professors at the University of Matanzas. Its bloggers supported Cuba’s socialist¹³ system, but criticized government corruption¹⁴, inefficiency¹⁵ and resistance to change.

Diaz-Canel called a meeting between the bloggers and the university.

As first vice president, he has mostly stayed out of public view. He has made few enemies as a result. But he also is left without a deep pool of goodwill¹⁶ to support him in difficult times.

Jose Raul Viera Linares is a former first deputy minister of foreign affairs.

“It will no longer be enough to read from the documents written and approved by the party. He’ll need to express ideas,” he said.

The former official said Diaz-Canel can no longer be just an administrator¹⁷, but must “evolve to become a leader.”

I'm Mario Ritter.

And I’m Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

capitalist - adj. of or relating to capitalism¹⁸?, a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) are owned by individual people and companies rather than by the government

uncle - ?n. the brother of your father or mother or the husband of your aunt?

view - ?n. an opinion or way of thinking about something?

pool - ?n. a small area of water, sometimes used figuratively to mean amount

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

3 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

4 bodyguards   

n.保镖，卫士，警卫员( bodyguard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks came to Jim's office accompanied—like always—by his two bodyguards. 和往常一样，在两名保镖的陪同下，布鲁克斯去吉姆的办公室。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Three of his bodyguards were injured in the attack. 在这次袭击事件中，他有3名保镖受了伤。 来自辞典例句

5 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

6 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

7 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

8 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

10 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

11 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

12 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

13 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

14 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

15 inefficiency   

n.无效率，无能；无效率事例

参考例句：

• Conflict between management and workers makes for inefficiency in the workplace. 资方与工人之间的冲突使得工厂生产效率很低。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This type of inefficiency arises because workers and management are ill-equipped. 出现此种低效率是因为工人与管理层都能力不足。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

17 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

18 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。