Castro re-elected president in Cuba
Raul Castro was re-elected as Cuba's president Sunday, officially to his last five-year term.
HAVANA (AFP) - Raul Castro was re-elected as Cuba s president Sunday, officially to his last five-year term, with a new regime number two: Council of State Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, official media said.
"The National Assembly of People s Power today approved, in this capital, Army General Raul Castro Ruz as president of the Council of State, and elected Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, as its first vice president," according to the AIN news agency.
Diaz-Canel, who turns 53 in April, is an electrical engineer by training, a former education minister and the president s de facto political heir seeking to project into the future the Americas only one-party Communist regime.
Raul Castro, now 81, became interim president when his brother, revolution icon Fidel, took ill in 2006. He then formally became president in 2008.
The National Assembly, whose members ran for office in October unopposed, also chose Esteban Lazo, 69, as their new speaker.
