Cuba to hold first Communist conference since 1997

President Raul Castro has announced that Cuba will convene its first Communist Party congress since 1997 – a major gathering that could chart the island’s political future long after he and his older brother Fidel are gone.

The congress follows a series of minor social changes the younger Castro has decreed to make life easier and less restrictive for ordinary Cubans.

“We have worked hard in these past few months,” he said during a Central Committee gathering shown on state television last night. He said the Communist Party must establish guidelines, including for “when the historic generations are no longer around”.

Castro also announced that he had commuted death sentences for several inmates, but that capital punishment would remain on the books in Cuba.

Fidel Castro, 81, has not been seen in public since July 2006, when he first fell ill and relinquished interim powers to the 76-year-old Raul. He stepped down as president in February, but officially remains head of the party as its first secretary.

His post could be awarded to someone else during next year’s congress.

The congress will probably also replace some members of the 25-member party Politburo.