Cuban-American lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday dismissed this week’s change of leadership in Cuba as a “sham” and a “nothingburger,” and said Raul Castro will still be pulling the strings on the communist island nation.
Castro, Cuba’s president and first secretary of the Communist Party, will resign as president Thursday and is expected to be replaced by fellow party member, Miguel Diaz-Canel. But Castro, 86, will remain in a position of authority as a senior member of the Communist Party even after he leaves his current job.
That had two Cuban-American members of Congress saying the changeover is not a signal of real change.
“This sham transition is more smoke and mirrors, another ploy out of the Castro playbooks,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said on the House floor Wednesday. “The reality is that Raul Castro will continue to maintain his grip on power.”
On @HouseFloor: The sham transition of power taking place in #Cuba today does not change the reality of the ppl in the island nor does it bring them closer to #freedom. The balance of power will remain at the hands of the #Castro murderous communist regime pic.twitter.com/qzQkPOro5M
— Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) April 18, 2018
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said on Twitter that the media was overplaying the idea that this week would mark the first time in 60 years a Castro hasn’t been president. He noted that Osvaldo Dorticos was president of Cuba until 1976, and that he was controlled by Fidel Castro.
Diaz-Balart said Castro would continue to rule in a similar way under the country’s new president, and said the transition amounts to a “nothingburger.”
Just like Fidel Castro named Osvaldo Dorticós as “president” until 1976, Raul Castro has now named Miguel Diaz Canel as “president of the Council of Ministers and State.” Another Castro puppet.
— Mario Diaz-Balart (@MarioDB) April 18, 2018
Today’s designation of a new Dorticós is a nothingburger. https://t.co/WuQfGiEIeH
— Mario Diaz-Balart (@MarioDB) April 18, 2018
The Cuban National Assembly named Diaz-Canel, 57, as the only candidate to succeed Castro. The lawmakers will also vote on 31 other heads of state later Wednesday and the outcomes will be announced Thursday.
Castro and his late brother, Fidel Castro, have controlled the country for more than six decades.
