Lots of talk about change in Cuba but still a communist country

In a few weeks, Cuba will have a new leader or a different guy using Raul’s corner office.

Unfortunately, it will have the same communist party and economic regime that devastated the island. This is from the latest party meeting:     

The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) will maintain the “leading role in Cuban society” and socialism will remain “irrevocable” after the Constitution reform, now underway on the island, is concluded this week by the 5th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the only political organization allowed on the Island.

The promised reform of the Electoral Law, announced by Castro in early 2015 to be completed in time this legislature, was not addressed during the 5th Plenary, or at least any discussion of it has not been mentioned by the official press.

Chaired by Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the PCC,the plenary session held in recent days is the last before the next president of the Council of State is appointed on April 19, a position that is expected to fall into the hands of the current first vice president Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The meeting was dedicated to assessing the obstacles to the implementation of economic policy, an analysis that comes at a time of uncertainty for the private sector, which as of last August has seen a halt on the issuing of new licenses for the most important activities.

So post-Castro Cuba will still be communist, or so they say!

The problem with maintaining a communist path is that Cuba’s economy needs massive change. It needs to create a more flexible economy to do business with most countries even in Latin America. It will have to show more respect for private property if it wants to end the U.S. embargo. It will have to create more jobs if it wants to employ all of those unhappy young people.

On the surface, Cuba will say that it will stay communist. In reality, it can’t if it wants to survive economically. Maybe they will wait for Raul to die before they admit what everybody knows: the system stinks!

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