Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais

A frase da semana: multipartismo como instrumento do imperialismo - Raul Castro

Esta frase mereceria figurar em qualquer seleção de expressões memoráveis -- acrescentem adjetivos, se desejarem -- pois ela realmente traduz o desconcerto de que padecem certas pessoas que vem seu mundo desabar:

Raul Castro declared that a multiparty system would not be part of the government's reforms because it would expose the country to U.S. imperialism.

Vejamos: o governo ditatorial diz que não pode permitir mais de um partido na ilha pois seria abrir o caminho a um partido do imperialismo. Que tal se os companheiros, atualmente em visita, prometessem abrir uma filial do seu partido na ilha-prisão o processo não começaria a andar: dois partidos, depois mais um do PCdoB, outro do Sarney, e assim, pouco a pouco a ilha teria partidos maravilhosos, fazendo concorrência ao partido do imperialismo?

Apenas uma sugestão, claro.

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Castro defends one-party system as bulwalk against U.S.

Cuba's President Raul Castro attends to the plenary session of the summit of leaders from the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Caracas December 2, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Jeff Franks

HAVANA | Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:07pm EST

(Reuters) - 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, Castor 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, which will require a change to the constitution, but that implementation could begin "gradually, even before the constitution is changed."

He did not explain how that would be done or when it might start.

Term limits would be a break from the past in the Cuba, where Fidel Castro ruled for 49 years after the 1959 revolution and was succeeded by Raul Castro, his younger brother.

They also could help bring new blood into the government, whose current leaders are elderly and have no obvious replacements.

Raul Castro is 80, his vice president Jose Ramon Machado Ventura is 81 and Fidel Castro, now mostly retired but still present behind the scenes, is 85.

There was talk before the conference that the party might impose age limits on leaders and promote new, younger people into the party hierarchy, but there had been no mention of either.

Bert Hoffmann, a Cuba specialist at German Institute of Global Area Studies in Hamburg, said the message of the conference appeared to be "to downplay any expectations that economic reforms might entail political change."

(Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes and Marc Frank)

- Relacoes Brasil-eua: Alguma Chance De Melhorar? Hummm -- Andres Oppenheimer (mh)
Don’t expect a U.S.-Brazil honeymoon soon Andres Oppenheimer Miami Herald, October 30, 2014 The big question among Brazil watchers in this capital is whether newly re-elected President Dilma Rousseff will improve her government's ailing ties with...

- Ditadores Estao Sempre Achando Que Existem Inimigos Que Precisam Ser Combatidos - Cuba
Sintomático. Mas os inimigos do regime comunista cubano são os próprios cubanos, simples cidadãos -- que gostariam de viver com dignidade, não na miséria oferecida por um regime falido -- e a História, com H maiúsculo, aquela que condena sistemas...

- China: Capitalismo Com Caracteristicas Chinesas... (wsj)
Defying Mao, Rich Chinese Crash the Communist Party Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2012When the Communist Party elite gathered last month to anoint China’s new leaders, seven of the nation’s richest people occupied coveted seats in Beijing’s...

- China: Os 90 Anos Do Pcc E O Papel De Mao Tse-tung
Zee Exclusive 'Mao a terrific personality in Chinese history' ZEE News (Noida, India), Sunday, July 10, 2011, 11:01 Founded with just 50 members in 1921, the Communist Party of China is now the largest political party in the world with 80.269...

- Wikileaks-cuba: Nem O Brasil Acredita No Sucesso Das Reformas
Diplomats spoke of "fatal" Cuban economy in cable Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Bill Trott Reuters, December 10, 2010 - 8:13am EST HAVANA - Diplomats from several countries said Cuba's economic situation could become "fatal" within two to three...

Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais