The Cuban leader will be leaving his country’s politics in the coming days. However, experts say it can be consulted on future decisions.
The congress of the Communist Party of Cuba will meet for four days starting next Friday and will mark the departure of Raúl Castro in a country shaken by the economic crisis and the recent advent of mobile internet. Here are five things to know about this important event in the country’s political life.
Raúl leaves
Three years after leaving the presidency, Raúl Castro, 89, will hand over the top position of first secretary of the only party to the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, 60.
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His plans? Retiring to “look after (their) grandchildren” and read books, just like the rest of the historic generation, as jokingly suggested at the organization’s last conference in 2016. This gives Díaz-Canel more room for maneuver, as he will, according to former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray, “control the party apparatus”.
But “Raúl will be there”, “it can be turned into a model similar to the model that was in China when Deng Xiaoping had no function, but (…) everything had to be consulted with him. He had the latter word ”.
The economy in free fall
The country is going through the worst economic crisis in 30 years. In 2020, GDP fell by 11% and the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the economic engine, tourism.
Across the country, Cubans spend long hours in semi-empty markets stocking up on supplies. “The Eighth Congress should focus on formulating credible reform goals,” said University of Havana economist Ricardo Torres. And he emphasizes that “the transformation of the property system must be the main goal”, in order to accelerate the opening of the economy to the private sector.
The Internet Revolution
This is the big change in Cuba in recent years. The arrival of mobile internet (3G) at the end of 2018 put an end to that impression of isolation on the part of the residents of the hitherto one of the least connected in the world.
The Internet released the word, allowing Cubans to talk about their daily lives, as well as to voice their demands, denounce cases of repression and even stage street demonstrations, something never before seen in Cuba.
As part of its program, Congress has proposed that the party be more effective against “political-ideological subversion” on social media. “The Internet has fueled the growth of civil society,” said Ted Henken, an American sociologist and author of the upcoming book “The Digital Revolution in Cuba.” It has “opened very important holes in the government’s monopoly,” he notes.
The unknown Biden
The election of Joe Biden as president of the United States aroused great hope in Cuba. After four years of harsh sanctions from Donald Trump, a president arrived who promised to reverse the campaign, at least in part.
But three months after his inauguration, he has not spoken a word about the island and his government remains firm on human rights.
Juan González, his Latin America adviser in the National Security Council, has just confirmed that “Biden is not Barack Obama in Cuba’s policy.” “The political moment has changed in a major way, the political space has been closed a lot, because the Cuban government has not responded in any way,” he added, condemning the “repression against Cubans”.
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According to political analyst Harold Cárdenas, “there is a group of spoilers on both coasts (in Cuba and in Miami) trying to prevent (a rapprochement).” Cárdenas refers to “the most radical sector of the Cuban right” exiled in Miami and the “most radical of the Communist Party”. Both, he adds, “don’t want normalization (of relationships) or they want that normalization to happen on their terms.”
Hope for a vaccine
The discovery of the first coronavirus cases in Cuba, in March 2020, was an opportunity to demonstrate the strengths of a model that has great relevance to health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the country has 82 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants (compared to 32 in France and 26 in the United States).
The island, with a population of 11.2 million, has just 88,445 cases and recorded 9 deaths. His other attempt to develop his own vaccine also appears to be going well, with two candidates in phase three and the final clinical trials.
Congress could be the occasion to announce the start of a vaccination campaign scheduled for June. Cuba would then be “the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to produce its own vaccine against the virus,” celebrates WHO representative in the country, José Moya.