Raúl Castro derides US democracy in speech to Cuban Communist Party

President Raúl Castro on Saturday derided American democracy as a sham, saying he saw no difference between Democrats and Republicans.

During a two-hour address to the twice-a-decade meeting of the Cuban Communist Party, Castro recalled a conversation with a US official during President Obama’s recent visit. He told “el Americano”, he said: “It’s as if we had two parties in Cuba and Fidel led one and I led the other.”

The remark prompted laughter from roughly 1,000 party delegates watching the speech, which was broadcast live on state television. Foreign and independent media were barred.

Despite the recent normalisation of relations between his country and the US, and Obama’s well-received visit, Castro also said the US was determined to end Cuba’s socialist revolution. One-party communism was essential to defend it, he said.

“We must be alert, today more than ever,” Castro said, speaking in front of a giant portrait of his brother, Fidel Castro, at the inauguration of the Communist Party’s first congress in five years.

Castro said Obama’s desire to end US sanctions was welcome but just a change of “method”, in reference to efforts by Washington to bring political change to Cuba ever since the Castro brothers toppled a pro-American government in 1959.

Obama and Castro announced in December 2014 they would end decades of hostility and normalize relations. But during his visit last month, Obama angered the Cuban government with a speech broadcast directly into Cubans’ homes in which he called for more political freedom and democracy in the one-party state.

Castro and his lieutenants, many in their 70s and 80s, faced some discontent ahead of the congress among younger party members who are critical of their slow delivery on promised economic reforms and a lack of transparency on discussions.

“The key function of the congress is a message that the Obama visit has not changed anything. To reduce expectations,” said Bert Hoffman, a Latin American expert at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

Castro reiterated the party’s commitment to the reforms which he said should be implemented faster. But he said Cuba was not moving towards capitalism, citing China and Vietnam as models while emphasizing that social ownership and cooperatives were mostly preferable to private property.

He celebrated Cuba’s growing number of self-employed people but cautioned that the US was seeking to turn them into a opposition force. Obama spent hours talking to small business people and entrepreneurs during his Havana visit.

“We are not naive, and we are aware of powerful external forces that aspire to, as they say, ‘empower’ non-state actors to generate agents of change and finish off the revolution by other means,” Castro said.

Castro did not detail which reforms would be implemented next, although he singled out Cuba’s complex dual currency system as a major economic distortion that needed to be rectified and emphasized the need for foreign investment.

He said he remained convinced of the benefits of improved relations with the US and said Cuba was committed to the diplomatic thaw. But he did not believe Obama’s promise that the US would not impose political or economic change.

“The goals are the same, only the methods have changed,” Castro said, adding that US migration policies that encourage Cubans to defect were “a weapon against the revolution”.

“These practices do not correspond to the declared change in policy towards Cuba, and cause difficulties in third countries,” he said.

Migration has surged since the 2014 detente, as Cubans take advantage of a US policy that grants them citizenship as soon as they arrive. Bottlenecks of migrants in transit have formed in Central America.

Cuba’s top leaders started their careers as young guerrilla fighters. The party congress is timed to commemorate the repelling of the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion.

“If one day they manage to fragment us, that would be the beginning of the end of the revolution, of socialism and independence in our homeland,” he said.

Castro is 84. His top lieutenant, José Ramón Machado Ventura, is 85. In a nod to the next generation of leaders, Castro said no one should be more than 60 years old when they join the party’s main decision-making body.

Castro is due to retire in 2018 and by the end of the four-day congress it will be clear whether he will remain as party leader until 2021.