l Castro Prepares to Resign as Cuba’s President

HAVANA Ral Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel 12 years ago and led Cuba through some of its biggest changes in decades, is expected to step down on Thursday and hand power to someone outside the Castro dynasty for the first time since the Cuban revolution more than half a century ago.

During his two terms as president, Mr. Castro, 86, opened cheap moncler jackets mens up his moncler outlet sale Communist country to a small but vital private sector and, perhaps most significantly, diplomatic relations with the United States. uk moncler outlet It was a notable departure from his brother’s agenda, yet it was possible only because he, too, was a Castro.

His handpicked successor, Miguel Daz Canel Bermdez, 57, is a Communist Party loyalist who was born a year after Fidel Castro claimed power in Cuba. discount moncler jackets His rise ushers in a new generation of moncler uk outlet Cubans whose only firsthand experience with the revolution has been its aftermath the early era of plenty, the periods of economic privation after the demise of the Soviet Union, and the fleeting dtente in recent years with the United States, its moncler sale Cold War foe.

Officials started gathering here in Havana on Wednesday morning and put forward Mr. Daz Canel as the sole candidate to replace Mr. Castro, all but assuring his selection by the Communist Party.

Few American officials even those in the moncler outlet United States Embassy in Havana cheap moncler coats mens have spent time with him or can claim to have shared more than a few passing words. Even the most seasoned Cuba experts best moncler jackets have only faint clues as to what he will do, how he will lead and how much latitude he will have to chart his own course.

Cuba’s next president could be hemmed in from multiple sides. For one, Ral Castro is expected to remain the head of the Communist Party and wield great influence. Even Fidel, cheap moncler jackets womens who ruled Cuba since the revolution, did not officially become president until years later, allowing others to occupy the post while he ran the country.

Beyond that, the diplomatic opening with the United States has closed abruptly under President Trump, limiting Mr. Daz Canel’s ability to maneuver economically.

„There is nothing in his rsum to suggest he is going to take risks,” Theodore Piccone, a Cuba scholar at the Brookings Institution, said of Mr. Daz Canel. „But moncler outlet woodbury that is the way the system works anyone willing to take the risk before now would not be in line to be the president.”

Mr. Castro is leaving office at a time of tremendous change on the island, both real and promised.

In just the last decade, Cuba has lost its defining leader, Fidel, which made way for Ral to take unprecedented steps to loosen the state’s grip on the economy and begin to nurture a private sector.

But change is often a managed affair in Cuba, orchestrated to maintain order while leaving little to chance or, especially, political uncertainty. While historic, the economic changes in Cuba have been halting, to the frustration of many Cubans hoping for better pay and more opportunity. So, too, has foreign investment, with leaders leery that it could grow to women moncler vests the point that they can no longer control it.

Now, the country’s next president will face a new set of challenges. Since coming to office, Mr. Trump has cheap moncler sale lashed out at Cuba and monclerdownjacket reversed, in spirit if not entirely in deed, the new relationship that President Barack Obama established with the Cuban government.

As Cuba seeks to moncler outlet prices modernize its moribund economy with a new generation of leaders less tethered to the past, the United States appears to be moving back toward a policy of isolation. Fewer American tourists are visiting Cuba and bringing dollars with them, in no small part because of Mr. Trump’s decision to undo some of Mr. Obama’s easing of restrictions on travel to the island.

And then there are the mysterious ailments that affected a group of American diplomats stationed in Havana. American officials say they were attacked by unidentified devices that damaged their hearing. In response, the United States issued a travel warning to its citizens and reduced the cheap moncler jackets size of its embassy staff by two thirds. For now, there is no office in Cuba that can issue visas for Cubans seeking to visit family members in the United States.

How the sudden slide in relations with the United States will affect Mr. Daz Canel’s ability to sustain the economy and stave off domestic moncler outlet online pressure remains unclear.

Mr. Daz Canel, though a prominent advocate of bringing internet service to the island and considered a relatively modern thinker within the context of Cuba, is not expected to deviate from the party line or the prescribed, deliberate path toward economic reform outlined by his predecessor.

In all likelihood, he will govern with less flexibility than Mr. Castro, who enjoyed a special status on the island because of his family name and revolutionary credentials. And Mr. Castro is not vanishing from the scene. As president of the Communist Party, he will preside over an important bastion of power.

„Daz Canel is one moncler womens jackets of those people who has risen through the ranks because he represents the prevailing view within the party, not because he himself has moncler sale outlet taken any particular initiative,” said Benjamin Rhodes, who was a top aide to Mr. Obama and one of the main brokers of renewed relations with Cuba. „I think he is going to be significantly more constrained moncler usa than either Fidel moncler sale online or Ral.”

Still, as the public face of this long awaited transition, Mr. Daz Canel has been thrust between the crosscurrents of change and tradition. It will certainly not be an easy task: preserving the achievements of the revolution socialized medicine and education, among them amid economic turbulence that threatens the nation’s future.

Mr. Daz Canel’s leadership will be defined in some respects by how he manages the competing forces within the country and his own government. Today, moncler online store the streets of Cuba brim with young people anxious for a new dynamic, one in which the future is valued more than the past and individual prosperity is not considered a threat to historic ideals.

But the ranks of government remain filled by an older, powerful generation of leaders clinging to the past, moncler outlet store a group venerated for its connection to the revolution. Their resistance made reform difficult for even Ral Castro to push through.

Without the same legacy to rely on, Mr. Daz Canel will be forced into a minefield of tasks that even his predecessor failed to complete. Chief among them are economic reforms central to the nation’s survival.

He will have to foster the growing private sector, the future engine of the economy and the fulcrum on which employment will hinge, while guarding against the income inequality it often brings.

After years of visible growth, with restaurants and bars popping up across Havana and elsewhere, the government decided last year to stop issuing licenses for private businesses, fearful that the pace uk moncler sale was getting out of control.