Raúl Castro retires and ends an era of more than half a century in Cuba

CARACAS. – “For my part, my task as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) ends withwith the satisfaction of having accomplished and confidence in the future of the country“. Raul Castro certified this Friday his withdrawal from the first political line in Cuba at the inauguration of the VIII Congress of the CPC, after 56 years with one of the two Castro brothers at the head of the “The soul of the revolution”, as Fidel himself invented it.

A sentence for the story, faithful to his severe style, without the frills that his brother lavished so much. Everything is linked and well linked, for something Raúl Castro has designed the architecture of his estate for years.

What you never imagined is that I would put the power back in such precarious conditions: with a economic crisis so deep it looks like a remake of the “special period”, with a pandemic which wiped out tourism, with a monetary unification that triggered inflation, with a social discontent which is measured every day in the networks, with the “Sister” Venezuela in deep collapse and with the strength of dissidents, intellectuals and young artists who fight for freedom in the eyes of the world.

Raúl’s farewell, on the verge of turning 90, marks the Communist conclave, which, as a starting point, will face a dichotomy that is difficult to adapt: updating and historical continuity for a new era without the Castro brothers, but with Castroism.

“It is a difficult task to resolve the contradiction between continuity and change, which can only be resolved in the virtual language of dictatorship,” said Martha Beatriz Roque, an economist imprisoned by Fidel during the Black Spring.

Everything indicates that the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, 60, will replace him at the head of “the governing body of Cuban society” and that at the end of his second term at the head of the country, he will command the CCP until his relief. three years later.

It remains to be seen if little Castro keeps his promise to take care of your grandchildren and read some books or if he remains in the shadow of the “group of well-prepared leaders” (chosen and trained by himself), as the nomenclature demands in a Caribbean imitation of Chinese Deng Xiaoping. For the moment, he declared yesterday that he would continue “to militate like a revolutionary fighter”.

“A new generation consolidates control. From now on, they will be forced to carry out important reforms, because their legitimacy does not come from a revolutionary background, but to be able to demonstrate a better performance, ”contributed analyst Arturo López Levy.

Meanwhile, the “imperialist enemy” is still there, less than 200 kilometers away. Havana hailed the defeat of Donald trump as a victory in itself, but the expected change of administration did not have the desired effects. In fact, from Washington they have made it clear these days that “Biden is not Obama” in Cuban politics.

“Dreaming and continuing a country. Here ideas are reinforced, history is recognized and the future is spoken, ”Díaz-Canel said on his social networks, before the“ big meeting ”was inaugurated with the conviction that“ we will continue to to be faithful to the heritage of our martyrs and to the example of Raúl and Fidel ”.

For now, Raúl and Díaz-Canel have moved several tokens in the past few hours. The first changed the army chief from General Leopoldo Cintra Frías to General Álvaro López Miera, son of Asturian Republicans exiled in Cuba. Both are “heroes of the Republic” and of the circle closest to the former president.

The government has promoted another much-requested change: that peasants can sell milk and meat in a country where those who slaughter cows are punished with imprisonment and heavy fines. First, they must honor their “commitments” to the state.

Among the tasks of the Communist delegates, beyond the new lines of the economic order, there is face the “subversion” that reigns on social networks and fight the rebellious song “Patria y Vida”, which permeated the new Cuban society.

“The fundamental question is whether the delegates will be able to discuss all these questions vital for the future of Cuba or whether, on the contrary, they will continue to conform absolutely to the dictates of the historical leadership and to the principles of the Revolution. I’m afraid that this is the solution, in turn the best way to update in continuity, without changing anything essential. Thus, the frustration of the young Cuban generations will continue to increase and the exit within the system that the new leadership could offer them will be closed, ”predicts Carlos Malamud, Latin American researcher at the Royal Institute of Elcano.

The vast majority of Cuban society lives on the fringes of Congress, trying to solve their daily lives, a feat. The most pranksters translate the acronym PCC by “When the Food”.

“In Cuba today, social disconnection and mistrust in power and in the other is what motivates our decisions. In Cuba, you survive from the “I”. The concept of family, perhaps the sole survivor of this social dynamic, has mutated with a narrower and more selective vision. The idea of ​​Cuban society is crumbling with the photographs on the balconies, which recall what was once a large country, ”said Dariem Columbié, writer and national coordinator of the Otro18 platform.

“Cuba is today a nation in ruins, which is still in the hands of a family and a military leadership whose objective is to remain in power at all costs ”, declared the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights.