Cuba old guard to flank Raul Castro until 2018
HAVANA: Fidel Castro appeared alongside brother Raul at a Communist party congress that ended Tuesday without sweeping leadership changes, leaving to another day the question of who will run Cuba when the old guard bows out.
Flanked by his younger sibling, the 89-year-old retired revolutionary was given a rock star welcome at the close of a congress that left Cuba’s elderly Politburo at the helm for another five years – despite Raul Castro’s pledge to stand down in 2018.
As the crowd chanted “Fidel! Fidel!”, the longtime leader hailed the accomplishments of the revolution he led decades earlier and that continues to serve as the nation’s political blueprint.
“The ideas of Communist Cuba will live on as proof on this planet that if one works fervently and with dignity one can produce the material and cultural goods needed by man,” Fidel proclaimed, seated on stage in his habitual tracksuit.
“We should fight without end to achieve them,” the now-frail statesman, who led Cuba for 47 years, told the party meeting intended to set the island’s economic and political path for the coming five years.
The 1,000 delegates present gave Fidel a standing ovation for his second public appearance in less than two weeks, and his third in about nine months.
There was little evidence at the meeting of Cuba’s recent political and economic upheaval, as Havana continues the process of ending its bitter enmity with the United States and takes steps to introduce free market elements to its formerly tightly-controlled economy. — AFP