Looks like dictator Raul Castro is preparing his son-in-law to become ‘Prime Minister’ of socialist Cuba

Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja and Raul Castro

Cuban dictator Raul Castro appears to be preparing his former son-in-law, General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, to become “Prime Minister” of the totalitarian socialist regime. Although Lopez-Calleja is divorced from Castro’s daughter, he maintains a close relationship with the Castro family dictatorship.

The Miami Herald reports:

Whether in New York, Mexico, or Russia, a face has become familiar in the most recent international trips Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel has made: that of General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja.

Introduced as “an economic adviser,” the enigmatic military figure was third in line to greet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting last week, just behind the vice president of the Council of Ministers, Ricardo Cabrisas, who renegotiated the debt to Russia, and foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez.

López-Calleja also sat close to Díaz-Canel in a meeting with Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in mid-October this year and accompanied him to his debut at the United Nations in September 2018.

Although the official Cuban media has been ambivalent, showing López-Calleja in photos but without publicly naming him as part of the official delegations, his growing international profile suggests that Raúl Castro’s former son-in-law could be among the favorites to fill the newly created position of prime minister.

While leaving much in place, the Cuban Constitution approved in February established a division at the top of the government and the appointment of a prime minister. Accordingly, Díaz-Canel changed his title from President of the Council of State and Ministers to President of the Republic at the beginning of October. The Cuban leader has three months to propose a prime minister, who will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the country.

“The election or designation of the prime minister is a decision in which the executive committee of the Political Bureau of the [Cuban Communist Party], the nerve center of the Cuban one-party system, will have the lead,” said Arturo López-Levy, assistant professor of international relations and comparative politics at Holy Names University in Oakland. Key figures of the generation of historical leaders, such as the first and second secretary of the Party, Raúl Castro and José Ramón Machado Ventura, as well as Castro’s successor in the presidency, Díaz-Canel, must approve the candidate, the analyst said.

López-Levy is López-Calleja’s cousin but declined to comment on their family relationship.

By naming a family member and the father of his grandchildren to a public leadership role, dictator Raul Castro keeps the reins of control in the Castro family and makes sure his children and grandchildren stay perpetually in power.

1 thought on “Looks like dictator Raul Castro is preparing his son-in-law to become ‘Prime Minister’ of socialist Cuba”

  1. That any reporter, especially in Miami, would even bother with “López-Levy” on anything Cuba-related, let alone something involving his COUSIN, is both disreputable and contemptible. I mean, are the Herald people that far out to lunch, that lazy, or do they just take readers for idiots? Lord have mercy.

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