Murillo Reappears Presiding a Parliamentary Session with Raul Castro
Marino Murillo was back at the presidential table in a session of the Cuban Parliament this Thursday.
HAVANA TIMES – The so-called tsar of economic reforms in Cuba, Marino Murillo, reappeared on Thursday on the political stage during an special session of the National Assembly, along with president Raul Castro.
Murillo’s absence from the official media for almost a year was the subject of speculation in the international news media and among ordinary Cubans. He is a political figure who is one of the vice-presidents of the Council of Ministers, a member of the Council of State and head of the Standing Committee on Implementation and Development of the economic reforms.
To viewers surprise on Thursday, the National Television afternoon broadcast transmitted long fragments of the interventions by Murillo before the Commissions of Economic,
Constitutional and Legal, and Services commissions, at the Havana Convention Center.
Programmatic documents
The Cuban Parliament met for the purpose of discussing three documents considered programmatic for the future of the country, already approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. These were the Conceptualization of the Cuban Social Economic Development and Social Model, Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution for the period 2016-2021, and the Bases of the Economic and Social Development Plan through 2030: Vision of the Nation, the Priority and Strategic Sectors.
According to the Granma newspaper, Murillo “offered details on the changes undergone in the documents during the discussion process.”
Murillo reviewed the modifications made to the documents by the deputies and the members of the Central Committee of the Party in meetings held in April, as well as those proposals that were not approved.
Concerned about property and wealth
In the debate, according to the newspaper, several deputies agreed to unite the wording of the section related to the Conceptualization of the economic and social model of socialist development, with that of the Guidelines in terms of “concentration of property and wealth”, taking into account the presently one recognizes it and the other forbids it.
“We are recognizing a multi-sectorial model in the economy, and the possibility of [private employers] hiring a labor force, which necessarily leads to economic surplus,” Murillo said.
The official acknowledged that this is one of the issues most debated in the consultations and one of the major risks thay are currently running. “We have to continue adjusting the rules governing the self-employed, because there is a negative phenomenon that is already occurring, and no document can define how to face it,” said Murillo.
Regulation of the State
“Where there is private property there is a certain level of concentration of wealth. We need to know what we mean by concentration of wealth. Then we have to evaluate the tax regime that we have, to form an adequate tax policy that allows us to adequately redistribute income, “he said.
The report on the topic of private economic management indicated that the session “showed the importance of state regulation to curb the concentration of wealth, in a country that cannot renounce the development of non-state forms of the economy”.
Finally it was Murillo who put the documents to a vote. They were approved unanimously [as virtually all votes in Cuba’s National Assembly].
Murillo had not make a public intervention or at political events since early July 2016, when Parliament held a plenary session on the country’s economic situation. A few days later, on July 14, he was replaced as Minister of Economy and Planning by Ricardo Cabrisas, who, like Murillo, also holds the position of Vice-President of the Council of Ministers.
Murillo’s absence was evident at subsequent meetings of the Council of Ministers, such as last April, which announced a readjustment of state budget expenditures to levels lower than last year.
Which of the 9 did you miss out Rich Haney?
You seem to intentionally conflate being unabashedly anti-CASTRO with being anti-Cuban. I am the former not the latter. I have no doubt there are a nominal few young Cubans who continue to support the Castro dictatorship. There are however far more who do not. Time will declare the “winner”. If you believe that Cuba’s self-proclaimed socialist government will survive and ultimately succeed, then your comments heretofore will not have been in vain. But if democracy and open and independent elections someday take place in Cuba, then I won’t need vicious adjectives to laugh in your face.
My guess is that Marino Murillo was having a crash course at Weight Watchers.
Sons of Fidel Castro Ruz
1. Fidel (known as Fidelito)
2. Jorge Angel
3. Ciro
4. Angel
5. Alex
6. Anton
7. Alejandro
8. Alexis
9. Fito
Fidel Castro’s two daughters both defected to South Florida, one quietly and the other very loudly as a well-paid anti-Castro author, speaker, and broadcaster. Those two Castro daughters have confirmed, as their relatives including Fidel’s 8 {correct} loyal sons have confirmed, that Fidel didn’t believe in enriching his offspring. Moses, of course, writes about “the elites are leaving” because of “how bad is life in Cuba.” He ignores the fact that both elites and the poor and a lot in between from a few other nations, including rich ones, also seek U. S. residence and citizenship but the Batistiano-Castro Cottage Industry in the U.S. provides special incentives for Cubans to defect, incentives not provided or available to anyone else. Even the visceral counter-revolutionary U. S. Senator from Miami, Marco Rubio, is upset that specially-privileged Cubans arrive in Miami, get on the welfare doles, and then GO BACK TO CUBA AND STILL RECEIVE THE DOLES. Now WHY would Rubio not like that? Also, if Moses considers Glenda Murillo “elite” and he is sure Marino Murillo’s watch is worth $40,000, he ignores the fact that the most influential and non-“elite” young Cuban twenty-something females in Cuba — such as Cristina Escobar, Jennifer Bello Martinez, Rosy Amaro Perez, etc., etc., etc. — are willing to fight as Celia Sanchez-Vilma Espin-Haydee Santanamia-type revolutionaries to keep foreigners, including Cuban exiles, from reclaiming their island. As far as Moses and other anti-Cuban propagandists are concerned, there are no Cubans on the island who agree with Cristina, Jennifer, Rosy, etc., etc., etc. And that simply is not true. In other words, perhaps there are Cubans in Cuba — including many such as the aforementioned — with visas to travel freely to the U. S. — who are not looking for inner-tubes to cross the Florida Straits nor looking for those lucrative incentives to defect. And, Moses, if you can dispute any of the above without using vicious adjectives to declare yourself the winner, then please, by all means, do so.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: Marino Murillo is among the 100 or so Cubans in Cuba whose position in government affords him and his family unlimited access to food, material comforts, international travel etc. While not shown in the photo above, Murillo was known to wear a $40k gold Rolex watch on his fat left wrist. With that in mind, it is all the more shocking that almost 5 years ago, when Murillo was one of the most powerful people in Cuba not named Castro, that his daughter Glenda chose to defect to the US. In August 2012, despite a life of privilege unknown to 99% of the Cuban population, Glenda Murillo Diaz took advantage of the Wet Foot/Dry Foot immigration policy to escape the same Castro dictatorship her father was a part of. How bad is life in Cuba when even the elites are leaving?