ANALYSIS-Castro successor lacks charisma but is experienced manager

February 25, 2013|Reuters

* Diaz-Canel has limited military experience

* Held posts in two provinces, good military ties

* A tough, but flexible manager, like Raul Castro

By Marc Frank

HAVANA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - When Cuban President Raul Castro
named former engineering professor and long-time Communist Party
insider Miguel Diaz-Canel as his first vice president and
potential successor on Sunday, he chose managerial skills over

Diaz-Canel, 52, is the youngest non-military man to come so
close to the pinnacle of power in Cuba since the Castro brothers
took power in 1959.

He was appointed first vice president on Sunday at a meeting
of the National Assembly where Castro also announced he would
step down in 2018 at the end of his second five-year term as

Diaz-Canel would step into the presidency if Raul Castro
could not complete his term. He rose through the ruling
Communist Party's ranks including key posts outside the capital
and enjoys some name recognition at home, though is far less
well known abroad.

While he has only two years of routine military service
under his belt, Diaz-Canel's ascent through the provincial ranks
has earned him strong ties with the military, connections that
other up-and-coming figures who fell by the wayside in past
reshuffles have lacked.

"This is a major change in Cuba, not just generational,"
said Arturo Lopez-Levy, an analyst at the University of Denver
who used to work for the Cuban interior ministry on intelligence
issues and U.S. relations. "The promotion of Diaz-Canel should
be seen as part of an institutional change in the way the Cuban
elite is promoted."

Before joining the government in Havana, Diaz-Canel held top
Communist Party posts in two important provinces, Villa Clara
and Holguin, centers of the booming tourism industry as well as
new private-sector activity, both key elements of an economic
reform process being pushed by Raul Castro.

That experience makes Diaz-Canel well-equiped to help Castro
advance those reforms, designed to make the economy more
efficient and bring in more foreign currency, without loosening
the Communist Party's political control.

"He has ties to the provincial tsars of the party. Those
leaders are very important," said Lopez-Levy. "They don't appear
in the international media, but they are a very strong power in
the island. They are kings in their own provinces."

In Cuba, there is no political campaigning, so proven
loyalty and strong connections inside the party and the military
are more valuable than a media-savvy style.

"I am not used to making frequent appearances in public,
except at times when it is required," Raul Castro said in his
first public statement after taking over for his ailing brother
Fidel in 2006. "Moreover, I have always been discreet, that is
my way, and let me clarify that I plan to continue that way."

Discreet would be an understatement in describing
Diaz-Canel's public persona as he worked his way up through the
Communist Party over 30 years, even as other young cadres rose
and fell.

Like Raul Castro, he is considered a methodical speaker and
lacks the charisma of Fidel Castro. Diaz-Canel has so far not
made any public comments since his appointment on Sunday.


He was brought to Havana in 2009 to become minister of
higher education and then a vice president of the Council of

He arrived soon after a number of high-flying Fidel Castro
protÃ©gÃ©s who lacked Diaz-Canel's party-level managerial
experience, most notably former secretary of the Council of
Ministers Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque,
were fired by Raul Castro.

A Communist Party source said Diaz-Canel was viewed within
the ranks as "sincere, incorruptible, a staunch communist, a
nationalist loyal to the Castros' revolutionary vision."

Despite being known as an effective manager, he also has a
reputation for negotiating the fine line between Raul Castro's
reform agenda and the sometimes more dogmatic doctrine of
provincial party members resistant to change.

"Diaz-Canel, while a loyalist of the old style, is young,
reformist when reform is called for, a known entity without ever
being singled out or even thought of as a threat to Fidel or
Raul," said Hal Klepak, professor of history and strategy at the
Royal Military College of Canada.

Klepak, who wrote a book on the Cuban military under Raul
Castro, pointed out the president is well known for picking the
best man for a job. "He is just the sort of man that Raul,
looking for continuity and institutionalization of the
revolution, can count on, but anxious like Raul to modernize
that government."

Fidel Castro, who removed himself from power in 2008 due to
ill health, made a rare appearance at the National Assembly
meeting on Sunday where Diaz-Canel's appointment was made,
appearing to add his seal of approval to the choice.

Diaz-Canel appears in fine shape for his age, with a full
head of salt and pepper hair, which he used to wear long, with a
chiseled face, square chin and muscular frame.

Lopez-Levy recalled meeting him in the 1990s, describing him
as "an articulate, flexible guy," with a reputation for being
tolerant of homosexuals at a time when the Communist Party was
still mistrustful of the gay community.

John McAuliff, director of the New York-based Fund for
Reconciliation and Development who specializes in university
level exchanges with Cuba, also met Diaz-Canel at an education
conference last year and described him as intelligent and

"Diaz-Canel stopped by and was very friendly. The keynote
speech he gave at the conference could have been made by any
serious international educator in the United States," he said.

"I joked with him ... that I could post it without
attribution and no one would guess it was by the Cuban minister.
He said I should," McAuliff added.

(Additional reporting by David Adams; Editing by David Adams,
Kieran Murray and Cynthia Osterman)