Raul Castro has become the new president of Cuba, ending Fidel Castro’s forty-nine-year rule. After being selected by the Cuban National Assembly, Raul Castro said he would continue to consult his brother on important matters.

Raul Castro: “I assume the responsibility that you have given to me with the conviction that the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution is only one person. Fidel is Fidel. We all know that Fidel cannot be replaced, and the people will continue their work when he is not here physically.”

The Cuban National Assembly elected seventy-seven-year-old José Ramon Machado Ventura as the first vice president. Fidel Castro remains the Communist Party’s chief.

In the United States, Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain criticized his Democratic rival Barack Obama for saying he would be willing to meet with Raul Castro.

Sen. John McCain: “Raul, in many ways, has a worse record than Fidel. And again, I think it’s naive to think that you can sit down and have unconditional talks with a person who is part of a government that has been a state sponsor of terrorism, not only in the hemisphere, but throughout the world.”