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Havana /Â AFP
Cuba’s communist party gathers on Saturday for a rare party congress less than a month after US President Barack Obama’s historic visit, but Cubans eager for change are likely to be disappointed.
Held every five years, party congresses normally are the main political event in a one-party system like Cuba’s that brooks no dissent.
The last one in 2011 introduced significant reforms of the island’s moribund Soviet-style economy, cracking open the door to small-scale private enterprise and foreign investment.
This one, the Seventh Congress, had raised expectations in Cuba and abroad that it could set the stage for accelerated political and economic changes following a rapprochement with longtime foe the United States.
But Cuban authorities have poured cold water on those hopes, signalling that continuity will be the watchword at the four-day, close-door session involving 1,000 delegates and another 3,500 invited participants.
In contrast with the last party congress, which was preceded by a wide-ranging public debate, this one will be held in secret, with only the state-controlled press allowed to cover the proceedings.
For the first time, the agenda of the Congress has been kept secret and will not be debated publicly, something that has surprised even the party’s rank and file.
The state press has said the congress will review the progress made in the economic reforms set in motion by 84-year-old President Raul Castro, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel in 2006 and plans to step down in 2018.
The congress is expected to approve an economic and social development program for the 2016-2030 period. According to the official media, 21 percent of the 313 measures approved in 2011 have been implemented and another 77 percent are in the process of being carried out, while two percent have been set aside “for various reasons.”
If the pace of reform has been slow, Cuban diplomacy has been very active over the past five years, its efforts crowned by the spectacular rapprochement with the United States and a dialogue that is now underway with the European Union.
But Cuba’s opening to the West is also proving to be a gradual one, reflecting Raul Castro’s caution as the island undergoes a transition to a new generation of leaders after more than 55 years under the Castro brothers.