Havana:
Raul Castro confirmed he was handing more than the leadership of the all-strong Cuban Communist Party to a younger generation at its congress that kicked off on Friday, ending six decades of rule by himself and older brother Fidel.
In a speech opening the 4-day occasion, Castro, 89, stated the new leadership have been party loyalists with decades of practical experience working their way up the ranks and have been “full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit.”
Castro had stated at the final party congress in 2016 it would be the final one led by the “historic generation” who fought in the Sierra Maestra to topple a U.S.-backed dictator in the 1959 leftist revolution. He currently handed more than the presidency to protege Miguel Diaz-Canel, 60, in 2018.
The congress is the party’s most critical meeting, held each 5 years to overview policy and repair leadership.
“I believe fervently in the strength and exemplary nature and comprehension of my compatriots, and as long as I live I will be ready with my foot in the stirrups to defend the fatherland, the revolution and socialism,” Castro told hundreds of party delegates gathered at a convention center in Havana.
The congress is a closed-door occasion but excerpts are becoming broadcast on state tv.
Castro, who launched a raft of social and financial reforms to open up Cuba right after inheriting the leadership from Fidel in 2008, hailed Diaz-Canel as one of the new generation of leaders.
Castro’s olive green military fatigues contrasted with the civil get-up of his protege, who is extensively anticipated to succeed him as party initially secretary, the most strong position in Cuba’s one-party method.
Older Cubans stated they would miss possessing a Castro at the helm, even though most acknowledged it was time to pass on the baton.
“It’s another stage,” stated Maria del Carmen Jimenez, a 72-year old retired nurse, “but without a double we will miss him.”
Castro denounced renewed U.S. hostility below former President Donald Trump. Incumbent President Joe Biden has vowed to roll back some of Trump’s sanctions, even though the White House stated on Friday a shift in Cuba policy was not amongst his major foreign policy priorities.
Castro stated Cuba was prepared for a “new type of relationship with the United States without… Cuba having to renounce the principles of the revolution and socialism.”
Stress TO REFORM
Cuba’s new leaders face the worst financial crisis due to the fact the collapse of former benefactor the Soviet Union, although there are indicators of expanding aggravation, in particular amongst younger Cubans.
A tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo and the coronavirus pandemic have exacerbated a liquidity crisis in the ailing centrally planned economy, which was currently struggling following a decline in Venezuelan help.
That has led to shortages of even simple goods, with several Cubans spending hours lining up to invest in groceries.
Those difficulties are foremost on citizens’ minds, in particular younger Cubans who have identified only crisis, analysts stated.
“I wish for a better future without so many internal and external restrictions,” stated Havana resident Guillermo Estrada, 31.
Since the expansion of net access in current years, Cubans are increasingly making use of social media as a platform to express criticism, although on the net non-state media are difficult the state monopoly of mass media.
Tight handle of public spaces by the authorities indicates protests are nevertheless fairly uncommon and modest-scale, but they are on the raise nationwide.
The dire financial predicament has pushed the government to speed up the implementation of reforms initially agreed by the party in 2011. A monetary overhaul this year sent inflation soaring 4 or fivefold, according to economists.
Havana has dollarized components of the economy, leaving these who do not acquire remittances from household abroad or who did not earn tough currency from tourism struggling to get by. That has eaten away at equality, a pillar of the party’s legitimacy.
Castro stated on Friday it was critical to speed up reforms, denouncing – as he has in the previous – “inertia, conformism, the lack of initiative” in state providers.
Yet he stated reforms fomenting the non-state sector must not go beyond specific limits that would lead to the “very destruction of socialism and the end of national sovereignty.”
Party militants like Rogelio Machado, a mathematics teacher, say they have been confident the new generation was up to walking that difficult tightrope.
“Our country need changes and the new generation is more scientifically prepared to continue the path of socialism,” he stated.
But government critics like “artivist” Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, whom Havana accuses of becoming element of a U.S.-backed soft coup try, say the death knell is sounding for the revolution.
“Raul is passing over the power to someone with little charisma and who does not have much popular support,” he stated although staging his most recent functionality against the government, in which he sits in a garrote for the 4 days of the congress. “This takes us one step closer to democracy.”
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