Fidel Castro Quits: What Now for Cuba's Old Cars?

by NowPublic Staff | April 19, 2011 at 10:09 am

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Fidel Castro Quits as Communist Party Leader: What Now for Cuba?

Fidel Castro has stepped down as head of Cuba's Communist Party. Fidel's brother, Raul Castro, is now first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, as well as President of Cuba. Castro wrote in a Communist Party paper, "The new generation is called to rectify and change without hesitation all that must be rectified and changed, and to continue demonstrating that socialism is also the art of making the impossible happen."

One could argue just now new this "new generation" is: Raul Castro is 79. Vice President Jose Ramon Machado, just named as second secretary, is 80.

Reforms Announced in Communist Party Congress: What About Cuba's Old Cars?

During the first Communist Party Congress in 14 years, several major reforms were announced in an attempt to modernize Cuba by adding free-market elements to the socialist state. First of all, Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell their homes and cars.

This means that all those old cars in Cuba can be sold, and replaced with newer ones, since post-1959 vehicles can now be traded on the open market.

Also, food rations would be phased out for those who didn't need them, and farming would be decentralized. Cuba's will remain a command economy, however.