PRESIDENT RAÚL Castro of Cuba called for time limits on top government posts as he opened a Communist party congress expected to crown his campaign to overhaul the economy.
“We have reached the conclusion that it is advisable to recommend limiting the time of service in high political and state positions to a maximum of two five-year terms,” he said in a speech.
The proposal won instant praise among Cubans, especially young people, who have lived in a land where high positions in the political, administrative, business and cultural worlds have often appeared to be for life.
“I can’t believe it. That’s fantastic,” said a 24-year-old economist, who asked not to be named.
The 1,000 delegates to the congress appeared far younger and more mixed in gender and race than the party’s ageing leaders. Nevertheless, the congress was expected to re-elect Mr Castro, 79, as first secretary of the party, and a handful of other veteran leaders to senior positions.
Mr Castro described as “embarrassing” the failure adequately to “secure the promotion of women, black people and people of mixed race, and youths to decision-making positions” based on their “merits and personal qualifications”.
But he did not blame Cuba’s one-party political system for its failure to generate new leaders. Nor did he blame his brother Fidel – in power for almost half a century until illness forced him to step aside in 2006 – instead insisting that times had changed and the system should change with them.
The party summit’s only agenda item is “Updating the Cuban economic Model”, with a special party conference called for next January to address political questions, including term limits.
“It is somewhat ironic that the idea of term limits comes only when it doesn’t affect the historic generation any more, due to the age of its leaders,” said Bert Hoffmann, a Cuba expert at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.
At the congress, five commissions will hold meetings until Tuesday, when delegates are expected to approve more than 300 proposals. These aim to transform the economy from a state-dominated system, riddled with paternalism and subsidies, to one where markets and private initiative in agriculture and retail services play a greater role.
Mr Castro, confident that his economic plans will be approved, focused much of the fire in his speech on political matters, from the role of the official media to the need to get the party out of business and administration – themes he said would be taken up at the conference. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)