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href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cubas-New-President-Vows-to-Defend-Socialist-Revolution-20180419-0028.html">https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cubas-New-President-Vows-to-Defend-Socialist-Revolution-20180419-0028.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Cuba's New President Vows to Defend
Socialist Revolution<br>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">April 19, 2018<br>
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<p><strong>Cuba</strong>'s new president, <strong>Miguel
Diaz-Canel</strong>, began his term on Thursday with a
promise to defend the <strong>socialist revolution</strong>
led by the Castro brothers since 1959, giving a sober
speech that also emphasized the need to modernize the
island's<strong> economy</strong>.</p>
<p>A stalwart of the ruling <strong>Communist Party</strong>,
Diaz-Canel was sworn in to replace <strong>Raul Castro</strong>
by the National Assembly in a carefully managed new
chapter for the <strong>Caribbean</strong> island,
aimed at preserving the political system.</p>
<p>"The mandate given by the people to this house is to
give continuity to the Cuban revolution in a crucial
historic moment," Diaz-Canel, 57, told the assembly in
his first speech as president.</p>
<p>He delivered a warm homage to 86-year-old Raul Castro,
who took office a decade ago as his brother <strong>Fidel
Castro</strong>'s health deteriorated. Fidel Castro
died in 2016. </p>
<p>Castro will remain head of the Communist Party until a
congress in 2021. Diaz-Canel, praising the reforms he
ushered in as president, said Castro would remain the
leader of the revolution and would be involved in major
decisions.</p>
<p>Stepping to the podium for a 90-minute-long parting
speech, Castro criticized <strong>U.S. foreign</strong>,
<strong>trade</strong> and <strong>immigration policy</strong>
under President <strong>Donald Trump</strong>.</p>
<p>"Since the current president arrived in office, there
has been a deliberate reversal in the relations between
Cuba and the United States, and an aggressive and
threatening tone prevails," Castro said.</p>
<p>Thursday's session was held on the 57th anniversary of
Cuba's 1961 defeat of a CIA-backed Cuban exile invasion
at the Bay of Pigs, a victory Havana celebrates as a
symbol of its resistance to 'imperialist' pressure for
change from Washington.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>RELATED: <br>
<a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Who-Is-Miguel-Diaz-Canel-Cubas-New-President-20180416-0025.html">Who
Is Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba's New President?</a></strong><a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Who-Is-Miguel-Diaz-Canel-Cubas-New-President-20180416-0025.html"> </a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Diaz-Canel praised Castro's move to renew relations
with the United States. He said there would be no
compromise in Cuba's<strong> foreign policy</strong>,
but in a repetition of a long-held stance by Havana, he
said he would hold dialogue with anybody who treated
Cuba as an equal.</p>
<p>"I take that as a signal that the Cuban leadership
still sees value in improving relations, even if they
have to wait for the next U.S. president," William
LeoGrande, co-author of a book on the secret U.S.-Cuba
talks that led to detente, told Reuters. </p>
<p>Castro spoke highly of Diaz-Canel and gave his blessing
to the younger man to take over from him as the powerful
head of the Communist Party in three years. He also said
the new president could serve two five-year terms,
underscoring restrictions Castro imposed on himself
after his brother's decades in power.</p>
<p>Diaz-Canel confirmed expectations the transition would
not herald sweeping changes to one of the world's last
state-run economies and one-party systems, promising
there would be no return to capitalism. </p>
<p>Diaz-Canel, who has risen the ranks of the Communist
Party over three decades, said the new period would be
characterized by "modernization of the <strong>economic
</strong>and <strong>social </strong>model," without
giving details. </p>
<p>He ended his speech the same way Fidel Castro used to:
punching the air and shouting the revolutionary slogans
"Motherland or death, socialism or death, we will win."</p>
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