Raul Castro Promises Change in Cuba
Raul Castro promised change for Cuba Sunday after the national assembly of the troubled communist nation formally elected him as its new president.
Castro, who was acting president since his older brother, Fidel Castro, fell ill in July 2006, said he wanted to open the country more economically to improve the daily living standards of citizens. In Cuba, the average university graduate makes only about $17 a month.
"Our government's work must be more efficient," Raul Castro told members of the national parliament in Havana's Palace of Conventions, according to Newsweek. "The country's priority will be to meet the basic needs of the population, both material and spiritual."
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Last week, the Vatican's Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone visited Cuba and said that a future trip by Pope Benedict XVI was possible, according to The Associated Press.
"Up until now it hasn't been possible. In the future we will see," he said without elaborating.
Among the changes mentioned by the younger Castro are plans to boost agricultural and livestock productions and to grant more licenses for restaurants and other small businesses in an effort to open the economy to private investment. The new president has in the past expressed that he greatly admires fellow communist China's model of economy.
Other changes that have already been implemented or are expected to occur include an ease on restrictions for traveling abroad and slightly greater freedom of speech, which is already being seen.
International experts and leaders, however, remain cautiously hopeful of change. Castro, after officially being announced president, named all the communist old guards to top leadership positions. He has emphasized that he will not deviate far from the socialist path and will continue to consult his brother on important issues.
"I guess nothing's going to change then," said Yuniel, a 22-year-old waiter in a restaurant near Havana's Central Park after Raul was announced the president, according to The Associated Press. "There's no reason people should hope for anything."
But others were more hopeful.
"There's a great deal of continuity in the top tier," noted Brian Latell, a senior researcher at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies and former CIA analyst, to Newsweek. "But I still think we'll see a lot of change."
Raul Castro extended invitations in 2006 to talk to the United States, but Washington has refused to talk to the Castro brothers.
On Sunday, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Tom Shannon, ruled out a lifting of the U.S. embargo imposed on Cuba in 1962 until there was a transition to democracy, according to Agence France-Presse.
During this time of transition, some have predicted that the Cuban church will play an important social role in the post-Fidel Castro era since it is the only major institution not controlled by the state.
The numbers of house churches on the island range from 3,000 to more than 16,000, according to different sources, up from only 1,100 churches and house churches in 1991 – the year when the Congressional Communist party voted to change Cuba's constitutional status from atheist to secular state.
"[Cuban churches are] very much 'on-fire,' very evangelical and a growing church. So the prognosis for the Gospel and Christianity in Cuba is 'all systems are go!'" said Compassion Radio's Norm Nelson, who visited different churches around Cuba and a seminary in Havana, according to Mission Network News.
The Cuban government reportedly also gave the evangelical Methodist Church a large three-story building. The building will be turned into a new seminary called "The Christian Center for Theological Formation."
As hope remains high in and outside of Cuba for change, it may pressure the government to change.
"Raul has opened a Pandora's box," commented Havana-born Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, according to Reuters. "If he only introduces marginal, cosmetic change, the frustration of the people will increase."
