Raúl Castro Pitches Term Limits amid Cautious Reform Proposals

Updated April 20, 2011 - Cuba’s Communist Party gathered on April 16 to mull over a battery of reforms designed to soften the state’s grip on the island’s economy. But while the proposed economic reforms occupied most participants’ minds, Cuban head of state Raúl Castro’s call for political reform caught media attention. Contrary to expectations, the Congress did not clarify which leaders will inherit the Revolution.

The Congress formally voted to retire Fidel Castro on Tuesday and bump Raúl to the position of first secretary. His replacement, Cuba's Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura, is an 80-year-old veteran of the Revolution. Several younger politicians—including former Economy Minister Marino Murillo, current Economy Minister Adel Izquierdo, and Communist Party Chief of Havana Lazara Mercedes López—were elected to the party's Leadership Council. Raúl Castro also laid the ground for much broader change at the Party’s first Congress since 1997. He proposed a term limit of two five-year periods in order to rejuvenate a political system devoid of young leaders. “Today, we are faced with the consequences of not having a reserve of well-trained replacements with sufficient experience and maturity to undertake the new and complex leadership responsibilities in the Party, the State and the Government,” Castro said in his speech opening the Congress Saturday. Critics point out that the term limits probably will not have much effect on Raúl Castro himself, who took over in 2008 and could still govern until 2018, when he will be 86 years old. Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a Cuban independent economist, told The Miami Herald by telephone that term limits won’t “resolve our essential problem, which is the monopoly on power by a group whose policies have failed for 50 years.” Regardless, the reform, if enacted, would clear the way for a new generation to take a greater role in Cuban politics and prevent future leaders from installing themselves in power for five decades at a time. Several Cubans interviewed by foreign news agencies applauded the proposal. 

But the term-limit announcement overshadowed what is shaping up to become Cuba’s most far-reaching economic reform since the government inaugurated its communist system in the 1960s. Castro called the Party Congress to discuss the “Guidelines to Social and Economic Policy,” a 32-page policy paper that envisions an increased role for private initiative, at the expense of the island’s cumbersome and notoriously inefficient state. The document also proposes phasing out the dual currency and ration card system. Castro views economic reform as his most urgent goal and called attention to examples of wasteful subsidies that drain state resources during his speech opening the Congress on Saturday.

Other reforms Castro mentioned over the weekend include plans that border on the reintroduction of large-scale private property. He confirmed rumors that the Cuban government plans to ease restrictions on the sale of cars and houses. While the specifics of the proposal are not yet public, Castro said the plan is in an “advanced stage.” He also referred to a plan to increase usufruct rights to fallow land for successful independent farmers. Cuba imports roughly 80 percent of the food it consumes. Making matters worse, Igor Montero Brito, the president of Cuba’s state enterprise for food importation, said last week that the island can expect to pay up to 25 percent more for its imports in 2011 than it did last year. Cuban officials hope that private initiative can spur a surge in domestic food production.

The agricultural reform highlights the key role that the Castro government assigns to small-scale self-employment, which Cuban leaders hope will take the pressure off the state’s bloated payroll. The Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the Cuban Study Group issued a report in advance of the Congress—Supporting Small Business in Cuba—that details how the U.S. government and private citizens can assist Cuba’s budding class of “microentrepreneurs.” More than 180,000 Cubans already have licenses to run small businesses and independent eateries, barbershops, trading stalls, and other enterprises are popping up all over Havana, as blogger El Yuma has documented in a series of posts called “Bisne a la cubana.” The Economist Intelligence Unit expects the reforms to underpin an acceleration of economic activity, leading the group to predict Cuba’s economy will grow by an average of 4 percent from now until 2015.

But the economic reforms also worry many Cubans, who fear subsidies may dry up with nothing to replace them. The Cuban government has already had to backtrack once since announcing ambitious economic plans. Raúl Castro’s announcement last fall that the government planned to kick 500,000 people off the state payroll by March prompted so much anxiety that the Communist government delayed the plans. Castro anticipated such concern in his speech. “The Revolution is not going to leave any Cuban unprotected,” Castro said. “Instead of subsidizing products en masse, as we do now, we will switch progressively to a system that supports those without other means.”

The Congress approved a package of 300 reforms originally proposed in the Guidelines on Tuesday, though the alterations made by the Party Congress have not yet been made public. The article announcing the passage of the resolution in Cuban state media highlighted the change in the Revolution's tenor: "[S]ocialism means equality of rights and opportunities for all citizens, not egalitarianism."

Learn more:

• Read Cuban head of state Raúl Castro’s speech to open the Sixth Communist Party Congress in English or view it on YouTube. 
• Read the policy paper by the Cuban Study Group and AS/COA, Supporting Small Business in Cuba: Recommendations for Private and Public Sector Leaders.
• See Cuba’s “Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy.”
• Foreign Policy’s slideshow documenting what may be the end of the era of Cuba’s classic cars.
• See the new list of Cuba's Communist Party officers.