The regime has decided to do without all its appearances to govern with all the rigor that the mechanisms of power allow.
HAVANA, Cuba. – In the closing speech of the XI Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, its first secretary, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, express: “At the end of the third quarter, GDP decreases by more than 4%, inflation skyrockets, the economy is partially paralyzed, thermal generation is critical, prices remain high, the delivery of regulated foods is not met, and agricultural production and the food industry do not meet the needs of the population.”
The Castro heir has had no choice but to recognize unequivocally that nothing works in Cuba, and that everything done so far has not produced any positive results, although he maintains his Numantine spirit of resistance and the conviction of leading the country to total debacle.
Also in the partisan plenary session, a letter from Raúl Castro was released in which he requests the postponement of the IX Congress of the Party, which was scheduled to take place in the month of April 2026. By unanimously approving said request – of course, as all things are approved in Cuba when the orientation comes from “above” – the type of institutionality that established the celebration of the Party congresses every five years (these congresses) began in 1975, and the two most recent took place in 2016 and 2021).
The new interruption of the five-year cycles has its precedent in the long interval that elapsed between the V Congress of the Party, held in 1997, and the VI Congress, which took place in 2011. It must be remembered that this period coincided with the final stage of the presence of Fidel Castro in power, a moment in which the whims of the ruler replaced the slight institutionality that allows a totalitarian regime.
These were the times of the so-called “Energy Revolution”, when the dictator tried to teach the Cuban family how to cook, bringing many household appliances to the television screen; of the “Battle of Ideas” and the costly weekly mobilizations throughout the length and breadth of the Island with the assistance of the old “commanders of the Revolution”; and the establishment of the “Commander in Chief Support and Coordination Team”, with a parallel government of some figures unconditional to the maximum leader, who in practice replaced the official cabinet.
Now, perhaps tired of so many events, meetings, resolutions, rectifications and government programs that have not resolved anything, and that keep the Island in a permanent crisis, the general without battles decides to imitate his older brother, and not waste any more time to start governing without the presence of mechanisms that hinder or slow down the directives drawn up from the highest level of power.
It is likely that this decision not to hold the IX Congress of the Party will also extend to the events and meetings of the official mass organizations, and even to the XXII Congress of the Central Workers of Cuba (CTC), scheduled for the coming 2026. For now, the period of sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power, which with its permanent commissions and its plenary meeting lasted approximately a week, met in a single day.
It has not been reported how long this stage will last without the presence of Castro-style institutions. But, we are certain that we live in times in which the dictatorship has decided to do without all its appearances to govern with all the rigor that the mechanisms of power allow.
