Castro: US must respect communist rule

Cuban president Raul Castro thanked President Obama for “a new chapter” in U.S.-Cuban relations on Saturday, but said the resumption of diplomatic relations would not mean abandoning communist governance.

“Every country has the inalienable right to choose its own political systems,” Castro said, according to the New York Times. “No one should believe that improving relations with the United States means Cuba renouncing its ideas.” 

Castro said the island nation would begin undertaking gradual economic reforms to allow a system of “prosperous and sustainable communism” to take hold.

He also said that the rapprochement between the two countries was just beginning, saying of the sweeping changes to U.S. trade and travel policies that “the only way to advance is with mutual respect.”

In an end-of-year press conference on Friday, President Obama declined to say how he expected Cuban society to change under his new policies.

“I think it’d be unrealistic for me to map out exactly where Cuba will be,” Obama said. “But change is going to come to Cuba. It has to. They’ve got an economy that doesn’t work.”

Obama also cautioned that he did not expect lawmakers to repeal major aspects of the embargo that require congressional action in the aftermath of his decision.

Obama said he believed that the embargo “has been self-defeating in advancing the aims that we’re interested in.”

“But I don’t anticipate that that happens right away,” he said. “I think people are going to want to see how does this move forward before there’s any serious debate about whether or not we would make major shifts.”

The president also downplayed the prospect of meeting with Castro in either Havana or Washington.

“We’re not a stage were me visiting Cuba or President Castro coming to the United States is in the cards,” Obama said. “ I don’t know how this relationship will develop over the next several years.”