in the us vicki huddleston former us chief of mission in havana and in washington d.c. andrew or tazo executive director of the cuba study group thank you all for being with us today on al-jazeera if i can start with you. in havana for the first time in sixty the president of cuba is not a castro just how big a moment is this will cubans and does it represent change in any way. well this is a very bottom moment but it is a moment for which the cuban system has been preparing. the cuban president raul castro or initiated the process of preparing the way for new leadership to arrive and he's doing it in a gradual or a way as we could see yesterday a couple of the story leaders of the revolution of the historic gorillas remain in the colors or state so but it this is this is historic it is the government and the party are. going to do it but i would say that is changing the reason for that is that if there is no change probably that kind of vienna continuing so this is this is a dialectical process in which a new leadership is taking over the leadership of people who were

i think it's terrific that the huddleston institute has launched them in this particular program and i hope it becomes a series. they do good thoughtful work here because it's relevant in these difficult questions need to be studied in a passionate and thorough way. i want to thank again everyone involved here and who has been working on this issue i look forward to more of this. think of a much. >> thank you. [applause] i like to think the panelists for a wonderful conversation. i think we could've gone on for another half hour or an hour. i like to thank you in particular for spending so much time with us today. ... [inaudible conversations] >> later today on c-span2 a live discussion with former fbi director james comey about his biography, his experiences with precedent trump and his book "a higher loyalty." join us live at 7 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. >> for nearly 20 years "in depth" on booktv is featured the nation's best-known nonfiction writers are live conversations about their books. this year it is a special project. where featuring best-selling for monthly program "in