The first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, Raul Castro, called on Friday April 16 for a “Respectful dialogue” between Cuba and the United States.
“I confirm, at this Party Congress, the will to establish a respectful dialogue, a new form of relations with the United States without claiming that, in order to achieve this, Cuba renounces the principles of revolution and socialism. “
The 89-year-old revolutionary was speaking in a speech at the Communist Party congress, which opened for four days in Havana on Friday. It will be the farewell for the leader, who has decided to make way for a new generation.
Relations between Cuba and the United States, after a historic but ephemeral relaxation between 2014 and 2016, were again strained under the administration of Donald Trump, which severely reinforced the embargo in force since 1962. For his part, Joe Biden, who had promised during his campaign to reverse certain sanctions, has not said a word about the island since his inauguration.
Raul Castro denounced this “Economic war” whose “Declared aim of strangling the country and causing a social explosion”, according to images broadcast on state television.
“The Congress of Continuity”
Unlike previous editions, no image was shown on Friday morning on television, with only a few photos and videos being shared in a dribble by state media via social networks, before the news broadcast aired extracts.
The historic meeting began sixty years to the day after Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban revolution, now “Irreversible” since the adoption of a new Constitution in 2019.
“As far as I’m concerned, my task (…) ends, with the satisfaction of having fulfilled my role and with confidence in the future of the motherland ”, said Raul Castro. But “Let no one doubt it: as long as I live, I will be ready, with my foot on the stirrup, to defend the homeland, the revolution and socialism”, he hammered, to the applause of some 300 Party delegates from all over the country and gathered at the Havana Convention Center.
From Monday, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who replaced him as president of the country in 2018, will be the first civilian to also lead the Party, in which he has led his entire career. This is “The congress of continuity”, he recalled via Twitter, stressing that the guidelines of power in Cuba, one of the last five communist countries in the world, would not change.
If economic reforms are urgent, in this country in deep crisis under the effect of American sanctions and the pandemic, the dogma of the single party will be maintained. “The Party constitutes the guarantee of national unity”, declared José Ramon Machado Ventura, number two of the communist formation, inaugurating the congress “With the conviction that we will continue to be faithful to the heritage of our martyrs and to the example of Fidel and Raul”.
