Raul Castro Archives

Cuba holds parliament meeting to discuss constitutional reform

by admin | May 25, 2021 | World

Havana : Raul Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President Miguel Diaz-Canel have chaired an extraordinary session of the Caribbean nation’s parliament to discuss a constitutional reform.

The meeting on Saturday, which took place at Havana’s convention centre and off limits to foreign press, began with the presence of 572 of the 605 lawmakers to start the process of drafting a new Constitution to reform the one first approved in 1976, Xinhua reported.

Modifying the text responds to the need of legally accompanying the deep process of economic and social reforms that have taken place in Cuba since 2010 without renouncing socialism as the political model in the country.

In the island, the private sector has flourished, after extensive state control for decades over almost all economic activities, and a new law recognising medium and small private businesses is expected to be approved.

The Council of State, top state institution between parliament sessions, on Friday approved a commission which will draft the new Constitution in a meeting chaired by Diaz-Canel.

The process, which could take months, will later be subject to a massive referendum where more than 9 million Cubans will vote to approve or disapprove the reform.

Other topics that should be included in the reform will be a limit to high government and party posts to two five-year terms.

If approved, current President Diaz-Canel would assume the party leadership in 2021, the year in which Castro concludes his second mandate as first secretary of the PCC for which he was re-elected in its Seventh Congress in April 2016.

At the start of the session lawmakers paid their respects to the victims of the tragic plane crash on May 18 with a minute of silence.

Later, they approved the 10 working commissions of the National Assembly for the next five years which will be responsible for providing input and supervising the constitutional reform process.

Also, parliamentary friendship groups with other countries were approved by lawmakers emphasizing that Cuba’s National Assembly will deepen ties with its counterparts of Russia, Vietnam, Iran and China.

The current Cuban Constitution dates back to 1976 and since then it has had three modifications after popular consultation.

—IANS

Cuba faces tough economic outlook: Raul Castro

by admin | May 25, 2021 | World

Cuban President Raul Castro

Havana: (IANS) Cuban President Raul Castro has said that a “reduction in oil imports”, falling prices of traditional exports, along with other financial restrictions caused a “tense and stressful” economic situation that will bring limitations in the second half of 2016.

Speaking to the lawmakers of Cuban parliament, Castro on Friday said the island’s GDP only grew by one per cent in the first half of the year, only around half of the government’s projections, Xinhua news agency reported.

“This result was due to external financial constraints caused by falling export prices and the limitations faced by some of our major trading partners, due to falling oil prices,” said Castro in his traditional speech to end the week-long parliamentary session.

The leader said Venezuela’s crisis was affecting Cuba’s oil imports as Caracas was unable to meet the supply it agreed to as part of an agreement in which Cuba sends thousands of doctors, teachers and other advisors to the South American country.

Castro said the falling prices of traditional exports such as nickel, tobacco and rum have also contributed to the problems.

The Cuban president added that the “harmful effects” of the US economic blockade on the island continue to affect the nation.

“Three months after US President Barack Obama’s announcement that he would lift the prohibition on Cuba using the US dollar for international transactions, we have still not been able to make a single payment or cash deposit in that currency,” he said.

However, Castro denied an “imminent collapse” of the economy or a return to the “Special Period”, a severe economic crisis which hit Cuba in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“We are prepared to confront this situation although we do not deny it may severely affect the population. There is no room for improvisation and even less for pessimism,” he vowed.

Despite the limitations, said Castro, the government will continue to implement economic and social reforms in order to update the island’s socialism.

Earlier in the day, Cuban Economy Minister Marino Murillo announced the country would face economic and energy restrictions in the second half of the year.