CUBA: CUBA'S NATIONAL assembly has named Raul Castro as head of state, formally ending 49 years of Fidel Castro's dominance.
The 614-member body last night accepted the 76-year-old defence minister and constitutionally designated successor as the candidate to take over from his brother, a transfer of power which was rubber-stamped in a vote last night.
The mood in the chamber was businesslike and betrayed little outward sense of drama or history in the making, a deliberate effort to project continuity.
The streets of Havana were quiet as people absorbed the latest step in Fidel's withdrawal from public life, a choreographed transition initiated 19 months ago when he provisionally ceded power to undergo emergency intestinal surgery. Last week the convalescing 81-year-old said he would not accept another term as president.
The absence of suspense underscored the regime's control over the island and its 11 million people, many of whom hanker for relief from poverty harsher than that experienced in eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Bush administration has called on Havana to end repression and move towards democracy, an acknowledgment that its Caribbean enemy was firmly in control and retained the initiative despite Washington's economic embargo.
Under a new president, the assembly and especially the council of state are expected to wield more power.
Raul, a military man and administrator who has long shunned the limelight, is believed to favour a Chinese-type economic liberalisation to ease poverty without loosening political control. He has encouraged debate and criticism of the system, raising expectations that a focus on delivering better food, transport and housing rather than ideological rhetoric will characterise his rule.
Under Raul the military has taken control of much of the economy and embedded so-called "Raulista" senior officers in political power.
Since taking over as caretaker leader, however, the younger Castro has attempted few reforms, possibly because his older brother and other ideological purists have applied the brakes, arguing that economic support from oil-rich Venezuela would permit a return to core communism.
"It is impossible to predict the path that Cuba will follow," said Moises Naim of Foreign Policy magazine. "The most likely scenario is a messy hybrid that continues with much of the current policies and politics but where different approaches are periodically tested, embraced or discarded."
Some analysts had speculated that the assembly could skip a generation and elevate assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon ahead of Raul, but in the first round of voting Alarcon was unanimously nominated for re-election.
- (Guardian service)