Raul Castro- Presentation of the Central Report to the VII Congress (English/Español)

Keeping a close eye at the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), we republish the General Report submitted by President Raul Castro at the opening session of the Congress. Below you can read the major parts of the Report in english and the full speech in spanish.

Raul Castro Ruz- General Report / Source: Granma.

PCC First Secretary Raúl Castro Ruz, presented the Central Report to the 7th Congress, after evoking the 55th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, on April 16, 1961, on the eve of the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón, which was defeated in less than 72 hours, with Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz on the front lines.

He noted that participating in the event were 1,000 delegates and some 280 invitees, representing the Party’s 600,000 members, organized in 54,000 grassroots units.

The first Secretary noted that the Congress would include the presentation of four principal draft documents, work on several of which began after the previous Congress: the conceptualization of Cuba’s socio-economic model; the development plan through 2030; a report on the implementation of the guidelines over the last five years and their updating for the period 2016-2020; and an analysis of Party objectives approved at the First National Party Conference.

Partido Comunista de Cuba: Our Party was born during the historic days of Girón

Published on Granma newspaper as part of a series of articles on the occasion of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (16-19 May 2016).

No other date is more symbolic than April 16, that of our party’s founding.

On the eve of the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón, after honoring the victims of the previous day’s aerial attacks on our airports, combatants of the Rebel Army, the National Police, and militias swore to defend at any cost the socialist character of the Revolution, proclaimed on this unforgettable day.

The historic roots of Cuba’s political vanguard lie in the Cuban Revolutionary Party founded by José Martí to organize and conduct the Necessary War; in the profusion of Marxist-Leninist ideas expressed in the first Communist Party of Cuba created by Carlos Baliño and Julio Antonio Mella in 1925; in the development of mass anti-imperialist consciousness in the first half of the 20th century; and, as the culmination, in the shock wave produced across the nation by the heroic actions of July 26, 1953, and the initiation of the war for the country’s definitive independence, conquered January 1, 1959. At that time, for the first time, the people achieved their legitimate aspirations, and took their rightful place as protagonists following the triumph of the Revolution.

Cuba: 1,000 delegates to participate in Communist Party's 7th Congress on April 16-19

Source: Granma.

The 7th Congress of PCC will be held on April 16-19 with about 1,000 delegates and will focus on the continuity of the economic reforms to update Cuba's socialist model approved at the 6th Congress in 2011.

Guaranteeing greater representation of all Communist Party members around the country and ensuring that participants increasingly reflect the areas from which they come, were key considerations during the election of delegates to the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, to be held April 16-19. 

According to an announcement made at the Party Central Committee Department of Cadre Organization and Policy, 1,000 delegates – similar to the number of participants in the 6th Congress - representing all territories will attend the organization’s most important event.