The BBC’s Michael Voss in Havana says Raul Castro realises “they made real mistakes out of idealism”
Castro pushes Cuba ‘rejuvenation’
Cuban President Raul Castro has said top political positions should be limited to two five-year terms, and promised “systematic rejuvenation” of the government.
President Castro was speaking at the start of the first congress of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party in 14 years.
He said the party leadership was in need of renewal and should subject itself to severe self-criticism.
The term limits proposal is unprecedented under Cuban Communism.
Raul Castro, 79, took over from his brother Fidel in 2008. Between them they have ruled Cuba for 52 years.
Mr Castro acknowledged that “the confidence of the majority of Cubans had been tested, with regard to the party and the revolution”.
He said Cubans would have to overcome a “mentality of inertia” and said the only thing that could threaten the revolution was “our inability to rectify errors”.
Much of President Castro’s speech focused on his plans to reduce the role of the state in the economy and encourage private enterprise.
He said it would take at least five years to update Cuba’s economic model.
Free education and healthcare would still be guaranteed, but mass subsidies of basic goods would be removed and social spending would be “rationalised”.
President Castro said 200,000 people had already registered as self-employed since the changes were announced last October, doubling the number of Cubans working for themselves.
But he insisted the socialist character of Cuba would be “irreversible” and accumulation of property would not be allowed.
The Communist Party Congress was preceded by a one of the largest military parades Cuba has seen in years, marking the 50th anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion by US-backed exile groups.
Troops and armoured vehicles paraded through Havana’s Revolution Square, followed by hundreds of thousands of civilians waving flags and chanting slogans.
The parade and Congress also celebrate 50 years since Fidel Castro proclaimed that his was a socialist revolution.
In 1961, Cuban exile groups armed and trained by the American CIA came ashore at the Bay of Pigs, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Havana, in an attempt to overthrow him.
But after 72 hours of combat the invasion was defeated, in what Cuba celebrates as the “first great defeat for US imperialism in Latin America”.
Raul Castro, who is a general, donned military fatigues for the parade. There was no sign of his brother, ex-President Fidel Castro, who is now 84 years old.
The four-day party congress is expected to see 1,000 delegates back all or part of a package of nearly 300 reforms.
It will also elect a new 100-member Central Committee and 19-member Politburo and 10-member Secretariat.
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