A Castro may lead Cuba amid rising US pressure for leadership change

As US President Donald Trump pushes for change in Cuba's leadership, speculation is mounting about who, if anyone, might replace Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. As Raul Castro's handpicked largely figurehead successor in 2018, Diaz-Canel has been the only leader without the last name Castro to govern since the 1959 revolution. He still has two years left in his term, but some experts and a growing number of Cubans doubt he'll make it. Two Castro cousins have come into focus as potential replacements, experts said. Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga - Raul Castro's 55-year-old great nephew - has shot to power since emerging from obscurity several years ago. He became minister of Cuba's influential Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment in May 2024 and was appointed the island's deputy prime minister in October. By contrast, Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro - Raul Castro's grandson - has never occupied a government post, having served as his grandfather's bodyguard and later as head of Cuba

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