Castro to step aside as party head?

Castro to step aside as party head?
November 19 2010 at 09:51am
AP

Havana -

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has suggested he may resign as Communist Party
chief, his last leadership post, as he praised his brother Raul's
management of the country.

"I got sick and did what I had to do - delegate my powers. I cannot do
something that I am not capable of dedicating full time to," Castro told
a group of students on Wednesday, state-run press said on Thursday.

Castro said he was not speaking to them as first secretary of the ruling
communist party but rather as a "soldier of ideas".

"I did not hesitate even a second to put aside my responsibilities,"
said the 84-year-old, who has kept busy writing and participating in
academic meetings in recent years.

After ruling Cuba for nearly half a century, Castro provisionally ceded
power to his younger brother, Raul Castro, in July 2006 following
intestinal surgery, and officially resigned the presidency in February 2008.

For now, Castro officially remains head of Cuba's only legal political
party, which will meet in April to discuss future economic policies for
the Caribbean nation. He has held the post since 1965 after seizing
power during the 1959 communist revolution.

Castro also praised his 79-year-old brother and successor, saying he was
"pleased, because the country is working, despite of all the
challenges". He also pointed to communist China, which has steadily
grown in recent years, as a model for development.

Raul Castro has said Cuba's economic model, which has survived two
decades since the Soviet Union dissolved, must be "updated" without
copying patterns from other countries.

His proposed raft of economic reforms is up for debate at the Cuban
Communist Party Congress, the first since 1997.

The reforms, which including cutting more than a million government
jobs, represent a major management shakeup for the communist island.

They provide for an influx of foreign capital, an opening for private
enterprise and reduced government role in the market Ä all steps away
from the Soviet-style communist system currently in force that gave an
overarching role to the state.

The proposals make efficiency a vital part of economic management, aim
to do away with state subsidies, including food rations, and foresee
starting a tax system.

Following up on his pledge on subsidies, president Castro is eliminating
subsidies on materials to build and repair homes, with all such products
due to be sold at higher prices free of government intervention from
January.

Since Februrary, a few materials have been sold free of subsidies in
over 300 stores, but subsidised sale prices remained in effect for most
building products, trade ministry official Pilar Fernandez told Juventud
Rebelde newspaper. - Sapa-AFP

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