HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cubans mostly welcomed President Raul Castro’s call at a Communist Party congress this weekend to limit the terms of island leaders, saying yesterday it would bring new blood to the government the Castros and their aging colleagues have ruled for 52 years.
The 79-year-old president told 1,000 delegates at the start of the four-day congress on Saturday that limiting high political and state positions to two five-year terms would help “guarantee the systematic rejuvenation” of leadership.
It was not possible to do this before because present circumstances are “quite different from those prevailing in the first decades of the revolution that was not yet consolidated when it had already become the target of continuous threats and aggressions.”
The matter would not be taken up now, Castro said, but at a party conference in January. He said any limits would apply to him as well.
Retired worker Cristina Mesa, 77, said Cuban leaders, most of whom are in their 70s and 80s, had finally recognized what others have seen for a long time.
“It is very clear that the country has to give way to the young people and it has to trust them, there’s no other choice,” she said.
“The limit is an efficient way of preventing anyone from believing they can hold on forever to a post. If they govern well, they stay, if not, they go and that has to be decided by the people.”
Student Laritza Martinez said the proposal came as a surprise because the Castro brothers have been constants in Cuban life since taking power in the 1959 revolution they led. Fidel Castro, who is 84 and did not attend the congress, ruled for 49 years, while younger brother Raul Castro was defense minister during the same time before taking over the presidency in 2008.
NOTHING IS PERFECT
“I didn’t expect to hear that. It’s fantastic that in politics we’ll be able to be like the rest of the world,” Martinez said. “Nothing is perfect, but it appears that Raul really wants to modernize the country.”
Skeptics said they believed Raul Castro’s motives were less about assuring that future leadership will not become entrenched than about giving the false impression current leaders are not trying to hold on to power for as long as possible.