HAVANA - Cuban President Raul Castro vowed
Saturday never to pursue "privatizing formulas" or "shock therapy,"
setting the tone for a Communist Party congress convened to review
progress in revamping the island's Soviet-style economy.
President Raul Castro giving a speech during the opening of
VII Congress of Cuban Communist Party (PCC) at Convention Palace in
Havana, on April 16, 2016
"Cuba will never permit the application of so-called shock
therapies, which are frequently applied to the detriment of society's
most humble classes," he said in a speech opening the congress, which
only happens every five years and stretches on for several days.
The meeting, the main political event in a one-party system
that brooks no dissent, comes less than a month after US President
Barack Obama's historic visit.
"The neoliberal formulas that promote accelerated
privatization of state assets and social services such as education,
health and social security will never be applied under Cuban socialism,"
warned Castro, who took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008.
Castro defended the slow pace of change to the island's
moribund economy, which has only cautiously and slowly opened up to some
private entrepreneurship and foreign investment.
He again blamed Washington's more than five-decade-old embargo on the island for its economic impact on Cuba.
The United States and Cuba are slowly normalizing ties
frozen still by the Cold War, even reopening embassies in each other's
capitals, but the trade embargo on Cuba remains.
The last congress, in 2011, introduced significant reforms
of the island's economy, cracking open the door to small-scale private
enterprise and foreign investment.
This one, the Seventh Congress, had raised expectations in
Cuba and abroad that it could set the stage for accelerated political
and economic changes following the rapprochement with longtime foe the
United States.
But ahead of the meeting Cuban authorities poured
cold water on those hopes, signalling that continuity would be the
watchword at the four-day, close-door session involving 1,000 delegates
and another 3,500 invited participants.
Raul Castro rejects 'privatizing formulas' for Cuba
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