{"id":431004,"date":"2021-04-16T16:35:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T20:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=431004"},"modified":"2021-04-16T16:35:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T20:35:26","slug":"the-castro-era-in-cuba-is-officially-over-as-raul-castro-resigns-from-communist-party-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-castro-era-in-cuba-is-officially-over-as-raul-castro-resigns-from-communist-party-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Castro Era In Cuba Is Officially Over As Raul Castro Resigns From Communist Party Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-castro-era-in-cuba-is-officially-over-as-raul-castro-resigns-from-communist-party-leadership%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=431004&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<aside id=\"right1forarticles\">\n<\/aside>\n<div id=\"ob-read-more-selector\" readability=\"42.906932773109\">\n<p>First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro confirmed Friday he would be stepping down as head of the country, ending a 61-year reign of Castro leadership on the island.<\/p>\n<p>Castro, 89, announced his widely-expected resignation at the opening of the Communist Party\u2019s eighth congress Friday. He did not endorse a successor, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/fidel-castro-miguel-diaz-canel-raul-castro-cuba-be9643a492b1803b67e29c8de467f7e9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">but he reportedly favors<\/a> current President Miguel Diaz-Canel to assume his role.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"10.15\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Raul Castro announced today he is resigning as the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Cuba. The move, though widely expected, marks the beginning of a new era for the party. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VzENPW64Eu\">https:\/\/t.co\/VzENPW64Eu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Axios (@axios) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/axios\/status\/1383143093176717314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whoever takes Castro\u2019s post will be navigating a challenging time in Cuba, which saw an 11% shrinkage in its economy last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and increased economic restrictions from the Trump administration. Younger Cubans have pushed the old guard, led until now by the Castros, to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/02\/09\/americas\/cuba-private-work-analysis-oppmann-intl\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">economically liberalize the country<\/a> at a quicker pace as inequality worsens.<\/p>\n<p>Raul Castro became President of <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2019\/04\/17\/trump-allows-lawsuits-cuba\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cuba<\/a> in 2008 after the resignation of his older brother Fidel, who had fallen ill in 2006. He remained in that role until 2018 when he was succeeded by Diaz-Canel. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2016\/11\/30\/college-students-in-the-nations-capital-prefer-fidel-castro-to-trump-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: College Students In The Nation\u2019s Capital Prefer Fidel Castro To Trump [VIDEO])<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He became First Secretary of the Communist Party in 2011. The First Secretary of the party is the de facto leader of the country. Cuba\u2019s constitution enshrines the power of the Communist Party in a one-party government, where opposition groups are barred from holding office.<\/p>\n<p>Raul served as second-in-command to Fidel for years. The older Castro took control of the country in 1959 as Prime Minister, and the brothers have run the country since. Fidel Castro stepped down as First Secretary of the Communist Party in 2011 and <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2016\/11\/29\/just-say-no-to-castros-funeral-and-his-apologists-lies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear what effect the resignation of Castro will have on relations between Washington and Havana. Following the Obama administration\u2019s historic re-opening of political and economic relations with the island, former President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2020\/09\/23\/trump-pence-cuba-sanctions-bay-of-pigs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">re-implemented strong sanctions<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/01\/11\/donald-trump-state-department-cuba-sponsors-of-terrorism-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">re-added the country to the state sponsors of terrorism list<\/a>. President Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/biden-resume-remittances-travel-cuba-151359093.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has previously indicated<\/a> a desire to return to Obama-era Cuba policy but has not yet made many major changes since taking office three months ago.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro confirmed Friday he would be stepping down as head of the country, ending a 61-year reign of Castro &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2276132,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}