News From the Invisible 7th Communist Party Congress

News From the Invisible 7th Communist Party Congress / 14ymedio,
Reinaldo Escobar

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 20 April 2016 — The most notable
departures from the Central Committee of the Party elected at the
Seventh Congress are: Rolando Alfonso Borges, who until now headed the
ideological department dedicated to controlling the media; Yolanda
Ferrer Gómez, who served as head of the International Relations
Committee of the National Assembly of People's Power and who spent long
years as a second to Vilma Espin, Raul Castro's late wife, in the
Federation of Cuban Women (FMC); Agustin Lage Davila, brother of ousted
Carlos Lage — former vice president of the Council of State and member
of the Politburo– and director of an important scientific center; Abel
Prieto Jimenez, cultural affairs advisor to the president; and Harry
Villegas Tamayo, survivor of Ernesto Guevara's guerrilla actions in Bolivia.

To those who stepped down is added more than a hundred who died,
destitute and retired, who were on the list of the 142 members of the
Central Committee elected at the 5th Congress, which was the last time
before the just completed conclave that elections were held, as in the
6th Congress they were not. From that list from 1996 there are now only
33 remaining.

From those who were handpicked over the last 19 years, 32 have keep
their positions. It is noteworthy that Joaquín Bernal, the current
Minister of Culture who is often presented as a member of the select
group, has been left off the list, along with others unknown whom no one
would miss. If the math does not fail us, we can assume that there are
77 new entrants, representing more than 50% of the total membership.

The perception of paralysis resulting from a reading of the documents
adopted at the event contrasts with this remarkable injection of fresh
blood, but it is reinforced by the fact that most of the members of the
Politburo have remained in their positions, and especially by the
presence of Raul Castro and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, who have given
the impression of being the only ones who know what can be changed in
the so-called process of perfecting the system.

If something positive happened at the Palace of Conventions in recent
days it is that the prediction that there would be a nepotistic trend,
raising some of the heirs to the name of Castro to the highest Party
structures, was not fulfilled. Everyone knows how the list of candidates
that is "analyzed and discussed" by the delegates is drawn up. It has
not transpired that anyone has objected to a name or questioned any
absence from the list. So it is designed, and so it was approved by
unanimous vote.

If they follow the new requirements established related to age, in the
8th Congress it could be that very few of the current members of the
Central Committee will be reelected. But 2021 is too far away to make
predictions, and in this game not everything is decided because the
dominoes are shuffled face down.

Source: News From the Invisible 7th Communist Party Congress / 14ymedio,
Reinaldo Escobar – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/news-from-the-invisible-7th-communist-party-congress-14ymedio-reinaldo-escobar/