HAVANA (AP) \u2014 Raul Castro said Friday he is resigning as head of Cuba\u2019s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership that began with his brother Fidel and country\u2019s 1959 revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 89-year-old Castro made the announcement n a speech at the opening of the eighth congress of the ruling party, the only one allowed on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he was retiring with the sense of having \u201cfulfilled his mission and confident in the future of the fatherland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNothing, nothing, nothing is forcing me to make this decision,\u201d said Castro, part of whose speech to the closed Congress was aired on state television. \u201cAs long as I live I will be ready with my foot in the stirrup to defend the homeland, the revolution and socialism with more force than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Castro didn\u2019t say who he would endorse as his successor as first secretary of the Communist Party. But he previously indicated he favors yielding control to 60-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, who succeeded him as president in 2018 and is the standard bearer of a younger generation of loyalists who have been pushing an economic opening without touching Cuba\u2019s one-party system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photographs released by the official Cuban News Agency showed Castro, dressed in an olive green uniform, entering the Congress with D\u00edaz-Canel by his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Castro\u2019s retirement means that for the first time in more than six decades Cubans won\u2019t have a Castro formally guiding their affairs, and it comes at a difficult time, with many on the island anxious about what lies ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The coronavirus pandemic, painful financial reforms and restrictions imposed by the Trump administration have battered the economy, which shrank 11% last year as a result of a collapse in tourism and remittances. Long food lines and shortages have brought back echoes of the \u201cspecial period\u201d that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discontent has been fueled by the spread of the internet and growing inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of the debate inside Cuba is focused on the pace of reform, with many complaining that the so-called \u201chistoric generation\u201d represented by Castro has been too slow to open the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January, Diaz-Canel finally pulled the trigger on a plan approved two congresses ago to unify the island\u2019s dual currency system, giving rise to fears of inflation. He also threw the doors open to a broader range of private enterprise \u2014 a category long banned or tightly restricted \u2014 permitting Cubans to legally operate many sorts of self-run businesses from their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s congress is expected to focus on unfinished reforms to overhaul state-run enterprises, attract foreign investment and provide more legal protection to private business activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Communist Party is made up of 700,000 activists and is tasked in Cuba\u2019s constitution with directing the affairs of the nation and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fidel Castro, who led the revolution that drove dictator Fulgencio Batista from power in 1959, formally became head of the party in 1965, about four years after officially embracing socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He quickly absorbed the old party under his control and was the country\u2019s unquestioned leader until falling ill in 2006 and in 2008 handing over the presidency to his younger brother Raul, who had fought alongside him during the revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raul succeeded him as head of the party in 2011. Fidel Castro died in 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HAVANA (AP) \u2014 Raul Castro said Friday he is resigning as head of Cuba\u2019s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership that began with his brother Fidel and country\u2019s 1959 revolution. The 89-year-old Castro made the announcement n a speech at the opening of the eighth congress of the ruling party, the only one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-regional-and-international-news"],"yoast_head":"\n