No political reforms planned in Cuba: Vice president

[1]

Cuba's vice president declared on Tuesday that there would be ‘no political reforms’ introduced on the communist island, despite a call one day earlier from Pope Benedict XVI for greater openness during his visit.

"In Cuba, there will be no political reforms. In Cuba, what we are talking about is an updating of our Cuban economic model, which makes our own form of socialism more sustainable, for the well-being of our people," said Havana's number two official Marino Murillo, speaking at a press conference.

The pontiff, on his first tour of Spanish-speaking Latin America and the first visit to Cuba by a pope in 14 years, is seeking to bolster closer church-state ties with Havana – even as he urges the Americas' only one-party state to embrace change.

At the start of his visit to the communist-ruled country on Monday, Benedict urged tens of thousands to construct a ‘renewed and open society’ in Cuba.

But Cuba's leadership insists that democracy already exists here, and sees the papal visit as a way to show to the world that it is tolerant and open to religious expression.

Murillo, who is in charge of carrying out the economic reform program ordered over the past few years by Cuba's President Raul Castro, said on Tuesday that a radical overhaul of the founding model of the revolutionary society here is a pipedream.

He added however that the country was open to outside influences so long as they ‘preserve the unity of the nation, Cuban socialism and our development’.

He added that the Havana government is viewing the pope's remarks as well intentioned.

"There are a lot of people in the world who want to help us and a lot people who want to share their experiences," he said. "Because we have so many friends, we listen to all of them."

Earlier this month, Cuba lifted a ban on private home construction and last year, ended the prohibition against buying or selling private homes – some of the most recent reforms of the communist country's Soviet-style economy which has been weighed down by a morass of red tape and bureaucratic inertia.