Jose Luis Garcia Paneque in Pedazos de la Isla:
Free Voices Share their Opinions (Pt. II); Jose Luis Garcia Paneque: “[The regime’s situation] is a desperate one”
In reality, no matter how many promises they make we should not expect much from this Communist Party Congress. What we can see is the “resistance of the Castro regime to abandon any sort of central planning” and their desire to “carry out reforms without damaging the socialist economic model of the country”. This, in fact, leads them straight to failure, for they do not have the desire to reform. According to their own words, they only wish to “update the current Cuban model”.
This is the pure reflection of a decadent regime which, 52 years later, still insists on “revolutionary offensives” to try and boost the morale of their supporters. With a few run down trucks from the 60?s they can’t intimidate anyone, and much less can they display any sort of military power. In truth, their situation is desperate and they resort to anything. What is clear is that their time is running out and they really do not know how to leave things when they are gone.
The old guard, which together with the Castro brothers, are responsible for creating this monster. They are the only ones they can count on to achieve continuity. But be aware, dictators never trust anyone. That is a mistake they only make once and we must acknowledge that they are no fools- just take a look at the closing remarks of the Sixth Communist Party Congress, “Despite the fact that we have not ceased in our attempts to promote youths to principal charges, life has demonstrated that our selections were not always the right ones. Today, we confront the consequences of not having a group of substitutes that are prepared with sufficient maturity to assume the new and complex tasks of heading the the Party, the State, and the Government. This is something we must solve slowly in a period of 5 years, without improvisations or pressures, but we must start as soon as this Congress finalizes”.
We must remember that mythology teaches us that “Saturn devoured his children”, and dictatorships lament about this but do the same.