Or the former Cuban president Raul Casto Friday he announced that he was leaving leadership Cuban Communist Party, Ending more than six decades of his family’s domination of the country. At the opening of the party’s convention in Havana, the 89-year-old said he would pass the position on to a younger generation, “full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit.”
“For me, my job as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party ends with satisfaction because I have done my job with confidence in the future of the country,” he said in a televised speech. To the Associated Press.
Raul took over the presidency in 2008, when his brother Fidel Castro resigned after 49 years in power. In 2018, two years after Castro’s death, Ral stepped down from the Cuban leadership and became the first secretary of the Communist Party, and he still maintains his influence in the direction of Cuban politics.
Miguel Diaz-Canel (R) must be confirmed to succeed Raul Castro (L) at the helm of the Cuban Communist Party – Photo: Omara García Mederos / ACN / Handout via Reuters
Incumbent President Miguel Diaz-Canel should be appointed to fill Raul’s position next Monday. Despite the pandemic, delegates have been meeting at the Havana Convention Center since Friday morning.
The Communist Party, founded in the 1960s, is the only party on the island. Although it did not form the government, the constitution defined it as the institution responsible for directing the country and its society, making it a place of great power in Cuba.
After decades of socialism highly centralized due to the influence of the Soviet Union, Cuba began a gradual process of opening up to private initiative in 2010, during Raul’s tenure. The Communist Party supported the reforms, but the slow implementation was due to the persistence of some of the more traditional “historical generation” leaders in leading the myth.
Cuba is suffering from a deep economic crisis due to the Coronavirus, which adds to the problems stemming from the island’s known shortcomings and the sanctions imposed by the United States. The country’s GDP decreased by 11% in 2020.
Although a new generation has arrived at the helm of the Communist Party, now under the leadership of Diaz-Canel, it is unlikely that major changes will take place in Cuba’s political system.