Politics

Fidel Castro is dead, but Cubans want some of his policies to continue

Raúl Castro, 85, says he will step down from the presidency in 2018, and whether 56-year-old Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel or another Communist Party official replaces him, the Castros’ successor will face an anxious society with expectations that are contradictory and maybe even impossible to meet.

There is a deep, pent-up demand for more freedom and prosperity, but a lot of Cubans say they don’t want an upheaval that would turn the island into another violent, disorganized Latin American country. It is a message Cuba’s state-run media drives home relentlessly, with ample coverage of every mass shooting in the United States and crime and unrest in other nations. But when violent crime does happen in Cuba, you won’t read about it in state-controlled media.