Aging Cuban Leaders Will Consider Term Limits

Government needs fresh blood, says President Raul Castro
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 17, 2011 12:14 PM CDT
Aging Cuban Leaders Will Consider Term Limits
Cuba's President Raul Castro attends the 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, April 16, 2011.   (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina)

Most of Cuba’s political leaders are in their 70s and 80s, and there is no “reserve of well-trained replacements with sufficient experience and maturity,” said President Raul Castro yesterday. As a result, the government will consider implementing term limits, in an effort to bring in new blood. Castro made the announcement to 1,000 delegates as he opened a Communist Party congress on the island, Reuters reports.

"It's really embarrassing that we have not solved this problem in more than half a century. Although we kept trying to promote young people to senior positions, life proved that we did not always make the best choice," he said, adding that he would not be excluded from the limits, which would likely be two five-year terms. The issue will not be discussed at the current congress, where the main agenda item is economic reform, but at a party conference next January. (More Raul Castro stories.)

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