Cuba’s Communist Congress Deferred

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, August 2 – With a climate of economic crisis taking hold on the island, the Central Committee of the governing Communist Party of Cuba decided to postpone the 6th congress of that organization, previously announced by President Raul Castro for the second semester of 2009.

Such gatherings have proven to be the venue for considerable debate and major policy decisions.

The last Communist Party Congress was held in 1997 as Cuba began to slowly emerge from the worst years of the “Special Period” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Socialist Bloc.

The process leading up to the long awaited Congress was already in full swing throughout the year as different Cuban organizations met at different levels to make their concerns and proposals known.