Raúl Castro announced his retirement as head of the Communist Party of Cuba and proposed a “respectful dialogue” with the United States.

Raul Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and brother of the late dictator Fidel Castro, offered this Friday a respectful dialogue with the United States, shortly after announcing he would be stepping down, the most important of the one-party communist regime.

“I ratify this Party Congress the desire to develop a respectful dialogue and to build a new type of relationship with the United States “, without renouncing “the principles of revolution and socialism”, he declared on the first day of the eighth congress of the Communist Party (CCP).

However, change the policy towards Cuba not a priority for US President Joe Biden, as indicated this Friday by the spokesperson for the White House, Jen psaki, interviewed at her daily press conference by the CCP Congress.

“A change in policy towards Cuba or taking further action is not among the president’s top foreign policy priorities at the moment,” Psaki said.

Sixty years after Fidel proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban revolution, his brother Raúl, 89, chaired his last Communist Party congress behind closed doors.

The historic meeting, which will last four days, marks the departure of this revolutionary leader and dictator since 2006, and the rise of a new generation. In fact will be replaced the current Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, 60, who will now concentrate power.

Unlike previous editions, at the start of this meeting no images were shown on television, only a few photographs and videos were shared in the state’s media accounts on its social networks.

In one of these images, 300 delegates of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) appeared, arriving from the provinces of the country, to a long applause as Raúl Castro Between in his military uniform followed by Díaz-Canel.

The latter, who replaced him as president in 2018, He will also be the first leader of the party, in which he will have spent his entire career. Díaz-Canel is expected to be named first secretary, the country’s highest post, on Monday.

It is “The Congress of Continuity”, he said on Twitter, noting that the guidelines for the country, one of the last five communist nations in the world, will not change.

Although urgent economic reforms are needed, With the country plunged into a deep crisis, the principle of a single party under a communist regime and an elite forged by the 1959 revolution will remain.

“Faithful to the heritage”

“The Party constitutes a guarantee of national unity and a synthesis of the ideals of dignity, social justice and independence of the generations of patriots who have preceded us and of those who have defended us in all these years of struggle and victory” , did he declare. José Ramón Machado Ventura, The party’s number two, 90, is also expected to retire.

Dijo inaugurar el congreso con “la convicción de que seguiremos siendo fieles al legado de nuestros mártires y al ejemplo de Fidel y Raúl”, según declaraciones reproducidas por los medios del Estado autorizados a estar en el Palacio de las Convenciones, donde llevo the meeting.

Raul became the absolute leader and Cuban dictator in 2006, when his brother Fidel left power at an old age. Since that year, he was both the head of the CPC and the president of the country, until he left the latter post and appointed Díaz-Canel in 2018.

After Fidel Castro’s death in 2016, Raúl’s retirement turns a historic page on the island, where most of the inhabitants have known no other ruling family than that of known revolutionaries.

“Raúl will not be at the head of the Party, but (for) any problem Raúl is there, Raúl is not dead”, testifies Ramón Blande, an 84-year-old communist activist, equipped with a mask to protect himself. the coronavirus.

According to state media, after a tribute to Fidel, Raúl presented delegates with the central report of Congress on Friday morning, in which he attacked the “economic war” waged by the United States after four years of the Trump administration, which hardened. the embargo in force since 1962.

Communist Parties of China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea send congratulatory messages to Cuba, according to the state newspaper Granma.

The internet effect

In the streets of Havana, without tourists due to the pandemic, Cubans seem more concerned about food shortages, long lines in front of supermarkets and spiraling inflation than the recent unification of the two currencies that the country had unleashed.

“I hope that with the Congress it will improve, because the prices are very high, the salaries have increased (…), but (…) in the end the money is not enough”, laments María. Martínez, 68 years old retired. .

For Norman McKay, analyst at the Intelligence Unit of The Economist, “The departure of (Raúl) Castro is a historic event not only because it marks the end of a dynasty that has lasted for more than 50 years, but also because it comes in the midst of a period of hardship and major economic turmoil. “

“This does not necessarily mean that there will be a sudden change in the style of the Communist Party”, but “the Internet will facilitate a greater demand for responsibility and freedom, posing challenges to the government that will be difficult for the Communist Party to ignore,” he adds.

In recent months, Cuba has experienced unprecedented social unrest, driven by the recent arrival of the mobile internet, with demonstrations by artists, protests by dissidents and mobilizations from other sectors of civil society such as the animal advocates.

In addition to the complications that Donald Trump’s sanctions have brought to the daily lives of Cubans, the increase in markets that operate in dollars, a currency to which most of them do not have access, has increased the frustration of the population. .

With information from AFP and EFE

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