Cuba Moves On with Economic Reforms, says R. Castro
HAVANA TIMES, Jan 13 — President Raul Castro said yesterday, after bidding farewell to visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Havana airport, that the Cuban government will comply fully with the economic program approved by the Communist Party Congress held this past April, reported the Prensa Latina news agency.
“With patience and without rushing — so as not to make new mistakes — the entire program will be fulfilled,” said the Cuban president to reporters. He noted that the “updating” of the country’s economic model would depend on many factors and that his government would move “at our own pace to avoid mistakes.”
The Cuban leader spoke positively about the health of former president Fidel Castro. “He’s really in great shape,” he said of his older brother, who also held a long conversation with Ahmadinejad last night.
After following the absurd formula of state ownership of everything productive, Raul’s phrase, “With patience and without rushing — so as not to make new mistakes — the entire program will be fulfilled,” has special relevance.
For nine decades non-scientific statism has discredited socialism. Let’s hope the new reforms bring about a mode of production that works, for this would allow the Left to regroup around a corrected concept of socialism.