Raul Castro chosen as new President of Cuba
The National Assembly of People's Power, Cuba's legislative parliament, announced that it had unanimously chosen Raúl Castro, 76, as the new President of Cuba. He will serve for 5 years.
The National Assembly, composed of 614 members previously elected in a January 20, 2008 general election, also chose the new First Vice-President, José Ramón Machado Ventura, along with 29 other members of the Council of State, Cuba's executive power. The Assembly has chosen Cuba's Council of State ever since the Socialist Cuban Constitution was approved by 97.7% of voters in a referendum in 1976.
This desicion comes after Fidel Castro, who ruled as President ever since rising to power in 1959 with the Cuban Revolution, wrote a letter last Tuesday saying that he would not "aspire to or accept... the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief" in today's election for a new President, who also becomes the leader of the Council of State and the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. According to Voice of America, he will still remain First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the only official party in the Communist state.
Mister-Info.com - Raúl Castro chosen as new President of Cuba
The National Assembly of People's Power, Cuba's legislative parliament, announced that it had unanimously chosen Raúl Castro, 76, as the new President of Cuba. He will serve for 5 years.
The National Assembly, composed of 614 members previously elected in a January 20, 2008 general election, also chose the new First Vice-President, José Ramón Machado Ventura, along with 29 other members of the Council of State, Cuba's executive power. The Assembly has chosen Cuba's Council of State ever since the Socialist Cuban Constitution was approved by 97.7% of voters in a referendum in 1976.
This desicion comes after Fidel Castro, who ruled as President ever since rising to power in 1959 with the Cuban Revolution, wrote a letter last Tuesday saying that he would not "aspire to or accept... the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief" in today's election for a new President, who also becomes the leader of the Council of State and the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. According to Voice of America, he will still remain First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the only official party in the Communist state.
Mister-Info.com - Raúl Castro chosen as new President of Cuba
