Above Photo: Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro (L) sits next to his brother and Cuba’s President Raul Castro at the seventh Cuban Communist Party congress, April 19, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
Leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz made a rare public appearance during the closure of the seventh Congress of the Communist Party Tuesday morning, where President Raul Castro Ruz was also in attendance.
“This may be one of the last times that I speak in this room,” said Fidel Castro. “I appreciate the invitation and the honor to speak in front of you,” he said. “The Cuban people will be victorious.”
On the same day, the party announced that Raul will serve a second term as head of the Communist Party. The post will last for another five years with the 85-year-old Jose Ramon Machado Ventura continuing to operate as the party’s second secretary.
The Cuban Communist Congress began Saturday the first Congress in five years and the first since Raul Castro and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama announced they were to end decades of enmity and seek a normalization in relations.
On Sunday delegates to the Congress proposed that their final report, which was presented during the opening session, be made public so all levels of Cuban society can discuss it, according to Radio Havana Cuba.
The report offers a detailed and critical look at economic issues regarding the Cuban life of the last five years, while exposing the challenges the country faces in the future.
Cuban Five Fernando Gonzalez, who is an invited guest of the Congress along with his four U.S. prison companions, supported the proposal to have the text discussed nationally. Meanwhile, Raul Castro proposed that future leaders of Cuba’s Communist party should retire at 70 to make way for younger blood.
Raul Castro, who previously announced plans to retire from government in two years, also hinted that Cuba is likely to be led by somebody with a different surname for the first time since his brother overthrew a pro-U.S. government nearly 60 years ago.
His comments, during a two-hour speech at the inauguration of the Communist Party’s twice-per-decade Congress were met with silence. “Don’t think that just because you can’t be in the leadership of the country you can’t do anything,” Raul Castro said.