Castro: No accumulation of property under reforms

Castro: No accumulation of property under reforms
Updated: Saturday, 16 Apr 2011, 3:28 PM MDT

HAVANA (AP) - Cuban President Raul Castro has told a Communist Party
summit that economic changes will not allow the accumulation of private
property.

Castro says some proposals along those lines have been rejected for
being "in contradiction with the essence of socialism."

He spoke Saturday at the opening of a crucial party congress. Communist
Party delegates are meeting to ratify sweeping economic reforms proposed
last year.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.
AP's earlier story is below.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba kicked off a crucial Communist Party congress
Saturday with a big military and civilian parade to mark 50 years since
the defeat of CIA-backed exiles at the Bay of Pigs, still celebrated
here as a landmark triumph over the island's powerful neighbor to the north.

Thousands of soldiers high-stepped through sprawling Revolution Plaza as
a military band played martial music, not far from an iconic sculpture
of Ernesto "Che" Guevara that gazes down from the side of the Interior
Ministry building. Helicopters whirred and jet fighters in combat
formation roared overhead while freshly painted amphibious assault
vehicles and rocket launchers rumbled past.

"Long live Fidel! Long live Raul! Long live the Communist Party of
Cuba!" a female announcer shouted, and participants responded with
shouts of approval.

Tweaking a theme from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, a male
announcer declared Cuba's revolution to be "Of the humble, by the
humble, and for the humble."

President Raul Castro, the former head of Cuba's armed forces before
taking over the presidency from his brother Fidel, donned military
fatigues for the occasion. He looked on with other dignitaries from a
dais, waving and saluting the troops. There was no sign of Fidel Castro.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans — from aging veterans to factory workers
— took part, many ferried to the plaza on a fleet of aging Soviet-era
buses and some shiny new ones purchased from China, leaving the rest of
the city mostly deserted.

"It is a really good party," said Anaibis Fernandez, a 54-year-old
employee at a Havana sports facility who was among the marchers. "There
are a lot of people here and it's very well organized."

Legions of young people marched including a sea of schoolchildren
surrounding a replica of the historic yacht "Granma," which ferried the
Castros and other revolutionaries back from exile in Mexico in 1956.
They twirled blue scarves emblazoned with "Che" Guevara's image over
their heads to simulate waves.

Articles in state-run media called the youthful presence a symbol of the
continuity of the 1959 revolution — an important theme for Cuban leaders
these days, with President Raul Castro at 79 years old and his brother
Fidel at 84.

Raul has acknowledged that this year's Communist Party gathering is
likely to be the last overseen by the brothers and those who fought with
them a half century ago. In speech after speech, he has lamented that
the time the revolutionary generation has left is short, but the work
needed to put Cuba's economy on track immense.

Since taking over the presidency permanently in 2008, Raul has turned
over tens of thousands of acres (hectares) of fallow government land to
small farmers, opened the economy to a limited amount of free
enterprise, and gradually cut some of the generous health and food
subsidies Cubans have come to expect in return for working for extremely
low wages.

He also has repeatedly warned Cubans that they must work harder if the
island's moribund economy is to survive. Plans to lay off hundreds of
thousands of state workers have been delayed indefinitely, but Raul has
insisted they are still part of a larger five-year reform plan.

More details of that plan are expected to emerge from the four-day
congress, which was scheduled to open with a speech by Raul after the
parade. Many Cubans are hoping the congress will expand the list of
approved private enterprises and relax rules on buying and selling homes
and automobiles, among other measures.

The changes announced by Raul so far have already been a significant
departure for a Marxist system where the government employs four-fifths
of the work force and dominates nearly the entire economy.

Yet Castro has vowed the changes are meant to improve Cuba's socialist
system, not toss it out.

It's no accident that the congress, the first since 1997, is being held
on the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs triumph and Fidel Castro's April
16, 1961, announcement that the revolution would forever be socialist in
nature.

"It sort of emphasizes where they've been and where they're going now,"
said Wayne Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy
in Washington who was chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission on the island
from 1979 to 1982. "It'll be very interesting to see what comes out of
this congress. Just what kind of a new system are we going to see?"

In addition to the economic changes, delegates are expected to vote in

new party leaders after Fidel Castro's announcement last month that he
is no longer first secretary. With Raul all but certain to take up his
brother's mantle, all eyes will be on who is named to the No. 2 spot — a
graying revolutionary comrade, or a fresh new face.

Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez, Anne-Marie Garcia and Paul
Haven contributed to this report.

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