At some point this would also happen, it was law-abiding. Sixty years after the declaration of the “socialist character” of the Cuban revolution by Fidel Castro, his brother, Raul Castro, confirmed a few days ago in his speech at the 8th congress of the Communist Party, that he is handing over the leadership to the “new generation”.
For the 89-year-old Castro, this “historic appointment” will be his last in the leadership of the Party whose reins will be taken over by the next ones, after his own departure, as he states in extensive reporting by AR.
Next to him, his successor, 60-year-old President Miguel Dias-Canel, 60, shone with pride in taking the baton after 60 years of “castle” rule.
In his opening remarks, Castro confirmed that he was handing over leadership to the younger generation, which he said was governed by “passion and anti-imperialist spirit” but also had “decades of experience”.
“I strongly believe in the strength and exemplary nature and understanding of my compatriots and, as long as I live, I will be ready, on foot to the procrastinators, to defend the homeland, the revolution and socialism.”, he assured.
Dias-Canel, who took over the presidency of the country in 2018, will be the first civilian to head the Party. A new first secretary is expected to be elected on Monday, the last day of the conference. He stressed in a Twitter post that the “guidelines” are not going to change.
After his death Fidel, in 2016 and the departure of Raul, the party and the whole of Cuba, turn a historic page and enter a new chapter.
According to the official media, after paying tribute to Fidel, Raoul presented to the delegates the main report of the conference, in which he denounced the “economic war” waged by the USA, especially during his four-year presidency. Donald Trump, which strengthened the embargo against Cuba, which has been in place since 1962. At the same time, he called for a “respectful” dialogue between Cuba and the United States, but “without denouncing socialism.”
As reported by Granma newspaper, “the general [Κάστρο] he is pleased to have given the leadership of the country to a group of trained leaders, experienced for decades, with faith in the ethics of the Revolution, identified with the history and culture of the nation “.
Diaz-Canel, reports in a report by Washington Post, “He represents a new generation and serves the first of two five-year terms as party leader. However, many analysts believe that Castro, who turns 90 in June, will continue to be the most influential figure on the island until his death.
Castro’s departure comes at a critical time when Cuba is facing many challenges: Its economy shrank by 11% in 2020 due to the pandemic, while facing its toughest sanctions USA and limiting aid from its ally, Venezuela.
In addition, and as the country does not have a strong currency to import food and medicine, endless queues are created outside the shops every day, when food with a ticket and one meal a day is available for some families. The country is also experiencing an increase in coronavirus cases, though Cuba has developed five candidate vaccines both are already in the final tests.
The castle of Castro
The truth is that during his tenure as head of Cuba, from 2011 until today, Raul Castro has made some historic moves of high significance and political symbolism.
He welcomed Pope Francis to the island in 2015 and met with former US President Barack Obama not once but twice, in 2014 and again in 2016 when Obama was at a baseball game in Havana during the trip – a landmark of the then leader of the USA on the island.
The substantial transformation of the country, towards its westernization, took place immediately after Fidel’s death, in November 2016. Castro allowed the use of mobile phones and computers As a result, today 6 out of 10 Cubans have access to the Internet, something unheard of for a purely communist country.
Castro’s main legacy, however, was his decision to open up the economy to private initiative, to give bases and incentives to local entrepreneurship, but he was unlucky because then he fell on the bull in a glass shop called Donald Trump, which imposed new and stricter sanctions on the country, resulting in an unprecedented political setback.
The partial restoration of Cuban-American relations
Castro is credited, of course, with the (unfortunately temporary) normalization of US relations with Cuba. “Obama and Castro write history”, underlined in 2016 in a relevant article the online edition of Spiegel magazine, estimating that “in the relations between the USA and Cuba there is a historic change. “After more than 50 years, the two countries want to restore their diplomatic relations.”
“A quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War, it ends in the Caribbean,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung commented at the time, adding: “This is a change that should have been made a long time ago. This is how Barack Obama ends a political boycott, which seemed to be just a paradox. “The United States may have dangerous enemies, but Cuba is no longer one of them.”
Unfortunately, as it turned out, the partial restoration did not last long.
But Joe Biden has long vowed to catch the thread of their relationship where Obama left off.
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