Most of the media's focus on the VII Cuban Communist Party Congress has been on the political immobility of the Castro regime.
General Raul Castro, his family and comrades will clearly remain in charge, with no youthful or optimistic outlook for the future.
However, what was widely under-reported was the economic retrenchment of the Castro regime.
This is the area where the Obama Administration and its allies had set the highest hopes for "change."
Well, they got change -- for the worse.
During the Congress, Castro announced that the much-lauded "Lineamientos" ("Guidelines") released pursuant to the 2011 Congress will be amended, so that the prohibition (#3) on the "accumulation of property" by the "non-state sector" will also include a prohibition on the "accumulation of wealth."
In other words, the Castro regime can crack down on any person for accumulating any amount of money, without any recourse, based on its own subjective standard.
Castro also reminded everyone that "cuentapropistas" ("self-employment") are not juridical persons.
In other words, they are legal ghosts.
Of course, this was entirely predictable by anyone that has followed the ebbs-and-flows of "self-employment" since Castro authorized it in 1993.
The regime only expands "self-employment" out of necessity. Then, once it recovers economically, hinders it again.
Thus, every pardoned debt, line of credit and license given by the Obama Administration to conduct business with the Castro's monopolies only hurts Cuba's "self-employment" sector.
It's not a coincidence that the number of "self-employed" Cubans has dropped by 10,000 since the Obama Administration announced its new policy in December 2014.
Obama's new policy is only empowering Castro's regime.
