Esteban Lazo Ratified as President of the Cuban Parliament

 HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 19 (ACN) In a constitutive session, the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba (Parliament) in its 10th Legislature ratified Esteban Lazo Hernández as president of that body and of the Council of State, who will serve for a five-year term.

Lazo Hernández, 79 years old, is a deputy to the Parliament for the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, has proven experience in that responsibility since 1981 and at the head of the legislative body since 2013; in addition, under his leadership the legal reform derived from the Magna Carta, proclaimed in 2019, was undertaken.

In the presence of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Revolution, and Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, María Consuelo Baeza Martín, president of the National Nominations Commission, also presented the draft candidacy to fill the positions of vice president and secretary of the National Assembly, who are also vice president and secretary of the Council of State.

Ana María Mari Machado and Homero Acosta Álvarez were ratified for these positions.

Mari Machado is a deputy for the municipality of Quemado de Güines, member of the National Assembly since 2003, was a member of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commission until 2012, chaired the National Electoral Commission for the 2010 election process and was a member of the Commission that drafted the Constitution of the Republic.

Acosta Álvarez, deputy for the municipality of San José de las Lajas, also with proven experience in legislative activity having been a deputy since 2009, participated in the commissions for the drafting of the draft Constitution, and then the Family Code, and in October 2019 was elected as secretary of the National Assembly of People's Power and the Council of State.

Ratified as members of the Council of State were Aylín Alvarez García, first secretary of the Union of Young Communists; Teresa Amarelle Boué, national president of the Federation of Cuban Women; Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, secretary general of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba; Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution; Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, governor of Santiago de Cuba; Miriam Nicado García, rector of the University of Havana; Yoerkis Sánchez Cuellar, director of the Juventud Rebelde newspaper; and Rafael Santiesteban Pozo, president of the National Association of Small Farmers.