Former Cuban political prisoner Pablo Pacheco, who was recently banished to Spain, on Raul Castro’s farcical “reforms” (H/TPedazos de la Isla):

The 6th Communist Party Congress is more of the same, with the additional problem that time is running out and a social explosion can surge at any moment as a consequence of the political immobility on behalf of the dictatorship, the economic crisis which the nation has been submerged under and the absence of freedoms. The discourse reflects the lack of will of the regime, and the fear they try to infuse on the Cuban people.

We must recall that prior to the Congress, Raul himself stated that they were border-line ruined: “We either fix ourselves or we drown”, he said. But, can socialism really be saved? I think it’s far too late to dream while awake, and to continue carrying out this political system which excludes its citizens. The Cuban people will inherit the worst of capitalism and the nature of communism- the massive employee layoffs from the first, and the absence of freedom from the latter. I’m not sure what to think if this consolidates itself. Cubans no longer care about one ideology or the other.

The world has changed and we now have only two options: dictatorship or democracy, and only the latter is compatible with humanity. We deserve another opportunity, and we deserve to live like human beings without fear, without so many limitations, and without a double morale. In sum, the only thing Cubans need to rebuild the ruins which 52 years of totalitarian rule have left us is: freedom.

Source: Capitol Hill Cubans