democracia participativa y derechos humanos / participatory democracy & human rights

• A proposal to establish term limits would require a change to Cuban Constitution but Raúl Castro underlined that they could begin "gradually, even before the Constitution is changed". He did not care to explain how or when or whether it would apply to high government levels
• Fidel Castro ruled for 49 years and his brother succeeded him during the last five. Raul Castro is 80 and his first vicepresident José Ramón Machado Ventura is 81.

Havana, Jan.30.─ President Raul Castro defended Cuba's one-party political system as a bulwark against U.S. imperialism and said it would remain as it is in a speech on Sunday to a Communist Party conference.

He also said previously announced plans to put term limits on the country's leaders were not fully official, but could gradually go ahead.

This weekend's conference, which is the first in the party's history, came amid wide-ranging reforms that have given Cubans the right to open small businesses and to buy and sell cars, but have included no promises of significant political change.

Castro held to that line in his speech when he railed against the United States, Cuba's longtime ideological foe, and its political system and said the Caribbean island 90 miles from Florida intended to remain a one-party state.

The Communist Party is the only legal political party in Cuba and, under a national constitution in effect since 1976, the supreme guiding force of the society and the state.

"In Cuba, based on its experience in the long history of the fight for independence and national sovereignty, we defend the one-party system instead of the demagoguery and commercialization of politics," Castro said.

He said permitting additional parties would open the door to U.S. interference. It "would be the equivalent of legalizing a party of imperialism on our soil," Castro said.

While the party will remain unchallenged, Castro said the country's leaders will be limited to two consecutive five-year terms, an idea he first mentioned at a party congress in April.

Castro said the party was still working out the legal measures for term limits ......

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