This weekend, the Communist Party of Cuba is meeting for a congress. 89-year-old Raúl Castro will most likely pass the baton as party leader to the current president, Míguel Diaz-Canel.
Raúl Castro had not been president of Cuba since 2018, but still had a lot of formal power, says Latin American journalist Edwin Koopman. Only with his presence was Castro in control. And as a party leader, he formally had even more power in Cuba than the president. ”
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Sixty years of Castro’s
In Cuba, power has been in the hands of the Communist Party since 1959, led by Fidel (until 2008) and Raúl Castro. The brothers rose to power when they, with a group of revolutionaries, including Che Guevara, managed to overthrow the Cuban government.
Since then, a communist regime has been in place in Cuba, with the country initially receiving support from the then Soviet Union. Fidel was president until 2008, his younger brother Raúl for ten years. With Raúl’s resignation as party leader, Castro has not been formally in power in Cuba for the first time since 1959.
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So after sixty years there will be other rulers, but according to Koopman little will change politically. The Communist Party is the only permitted political party in Cuba and it has all the power. The goal of the new regime will be to stay in power. ”
‘Surviving’
In Cuba, thanks to the decades-long regime of the Castro brothers, there is no freedom of expression. No free press and therefore only one political party is allowed, and for example, free trade is not allowed on the (international) market.
According to Koopman, it will at least remain that way in the short term: “The regime has no interest in changing these things, it is concerned with survival in terms of power.”
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The current situation does pose problems for the Communist Party. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with the lack of freedoms and the dire economic situation of the country. This dissatisfaction has been around for some time, but has not become visible, partly due to the lack of free press.
World is watching
According to Koopman, that situation has now changed. Because Cubans have increasing access to the internet, we know more and more about the unrest in the country. The Cubans want to show what is going on in Cuba via social media and are encouraged by the fact that the world is watching. ”
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One of the Cubans who talks about his country is Victor. He was so critical of the system that he had to flee to the Netherlands in 2018. After Fidel Castro’s death, I told the foreign press how I felt about his leadership. I was arrested for that and was sent to jail for five days. ”
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His days in prison did not stop Victor from speaking out. On the contrary, he continued to blog illegally about the situation in the country and campaigned to improve the position of the LGBT community in Cuba.
“Our movement that stands for freedoms in Cuba has grown enormously. It had such an effect that I got Cuba’s security service back on my roof. If I didn’t quit, they’d get my mom fired. I didn’t want my family involved in this, so I decided to flee. ”
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Not (yet) a revolution
A social revolution in which dictatorship is wiped out is the only solution for him, says Victor. Yet he does not expect that revolution yet. According to the activist, the power of the party remains and cannot be pushed aside.
According to Edwin Koopman, it is also going too far to speak of an impending revolution. “You do see things happening that you would not have thought possible until years ago.”
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For example, videos appear where people argue with the police. There was also a demonstration of hundreds of people in Cuba itself. That was until recently. really unthinkable. ”
So this weekend the Communist Party is meeting. Koopman: “It is unclear whether the party is afraid of an uprising. Small manifestations are now being quashed. But it could be that with the resignation of Raúl Castro, small changes will be made so that the party can remain in power. ”
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Corona vaccine as a straw
For a long time, the number of corona infections in Cuba was limited due to a very strict lockdown. When the country was briefly opened to tourists, the number of infections rose quickly. Yet there is also some hopeful news for Cubans: the country is well on the way to developing its own corona vaccine.
It is known as a forerunner in the medical world. If the vaccine, Soberana 2, is approved, Cuba will be the poorest and smallest country in the world that will succeed in producing its own vaccine. The Cuban government also sees the vaccine as the means to save the country’s economic situation.
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