Cuba will stay socialist, insists Raul Castro

-- CubaPresident s ays softened US stance will not lead to radical change
Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk
August 2,2009

Raul Castro yesterday acknowledged that the US has softened its rhetoric towards Cuba under Barack Obama but insisted that the island would remain a socialist country even after the death of its revolutionary leaders.

The former defence minister, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel as president last year, repeated his willingness to discuss all issues with the US but vowed that Cuba would not see fundamental change even after he and his older brother were gone.

"I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not destroy it. We are ready to talk about everything, but … not to negotiate our political and social system," Castro told the Cuban national assembly to a long standing ovation.

As for those who thought that Cuba's political system would crumble after "the death of Fidel and all of us", Castro said: "If that's how they think, they are doomed to failure."

Cuba's President Raul Castro (L) talks to United Nations General Assembly Chief Miguel d'Escoto (C) and Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly during the May Day parade on Havana's Revolution Square May 1, 2009.

Obama has said he wants to improve relations with Cuba – as with Iran. He has relaxed the 47-year-old US embargo by allowing Cuban-Americans to travel and send money freely to the island 90 miles from Key West, Florida, and has reopened immigration talks with the Cuban government that were suspended by his predecessor, George Bush.

In another conciliatory gesture, the US recently turned off a news ticker on the US interests section in Havana that Cuba viewed as a constant provocation.

But Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have said further improvements depend on Cuba making progress on human rights.

In much of yesterday's speech, Castro gave a bleak overview of the economy, saying the government had cut its budget for the second time this year because of the country's worst financial crisis since the 1990s. Conditions are so bad that the authorities on Friday postponed a Communist party congress that would have been the first of its kind in 12 years.

Castro said the economy, hit by the global financial crisis and three hurricanes last year, grew just 0.8% in the first half of 2009. He said growth of 1.7% was expected for the full year.

As combined economic shocks reduced income from exports and boosted spending on imports of food and other items, Castro held out the prospect of cuts in Cuba's admired healthcare system. Healthcare, along with free education through university, subsidised housing and food provided on a monthly ration system, forms the basis of Cuba's socialist model.

Castro's biggest reform has been the decentralisation of decision-making in agriculture and putting more land in the hands of private farmers to increase food production. He has also pushed for Cubans to be paid based on their production, to create incentives for them to work harder.

In the fight against corruption which he says is choking the Cuban economy, Castro has created a comptroller general's office, with powers to audit and control all government and economic activities.