Weekly Report - 28 February 2013 (WR-13-08)

Cuba’s President Raúl Castro confirmed on 24 February that he would only remain in power for five more years, stepping aside in February 2018. If he is true to his word, then the Castro dynasty will have held sway for 59 years in Cuba. Castro said his decision was consistent with the commitment by the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) in a party conference in January 2012 to introduce two-term limits for elected officials. By 2018, if not before, he will also have reached his biological limit, being nearly 87. During the next five years he will endeavour to entrench a Chinese-style economic opening while preserving the closed political system of a one-party state.