VIII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba begins

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The VIII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), which is expected to be the political farewell of the first secretary of the party, Raúl Castro, began Friday in Havana, state media reported.

Castro, 89, and his likely successor at the head of the single party, the current president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, are leading the four-day conclave attended by delegates from all over the country.

During the first of the four working days until Monday, Raúl Castro will present to the delegates the central report to the VIII Congress, reported state portal Cubadebate.

Earlier, at the beginning of the event, a video on the late historic leader Fidel Castro was shown and then the second secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC, José Ramón Machado Ventura, 89, delivered an inaugural speech.

The Congress is being held behind closed doors at the Convention Palace, west of the capital, without access to foreign press and without live television broadcast, so the number of attendees is still unknown, although government sources confirmed to Efe that it will be limited due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The meeting will mark the announced farewell of Raúl Castro as the first secretary of the organization and the appointment of Díaz-Canel to that position.

Other historic veterans who remain in the leadership are also expected to be relieved, among them could be the number two of the PCC, Machado Ventura, and the promotion to the leadership of leaders born after the 1959 Revolution.

However, Cuban leaders and state media have stressed in recent weeks that Congress will guarantee the “historical continuity” of the single-party system and centralized socialist economy that has prevailed in Cuba for more than six decades.

In addition to the generational handover, the event will also analyze the results of the economic reforms proposed a decade ago, as advanced by the state press in recent weeks.

This analysis will take place in the midst of a serious economic situation in the Caribbean country, with added tensions due to the current third wave of the coronavirus and the increase of chronic shortages of food and basic products, which have fueled unrest and discontent among the population.