Delusion is riding high in the utopian train of change in Cuba. The problem is that the railroad station is empty with a sign that states: “The Communist Party is the soul of the Nation.” Tenaciously holding to power, Raúl Castro stated at the recently held party conference in Havana, that the socialist system is untouchable and the supreme guiding force of the Marxist State.

Standing on the ruins of a failed revolution, he did not mention significant changes, downplaying any expectation that some mild economic reforms could entail an opening of individual rights. It is obvious that Raúl Castro is not interested in a Cuban political spring of freedom. He is perfectly reconciled to the darkest night of a dogmatic fossil.

The Old Guard is in full control, completely oblivious to the universal discredit of the Marxist ideology. A corrupted inner power ring, the Cuban Communist Party is presided by the 80-year-old Raúl Castro, his 81 year-old deputy, José Machado Ventura, the 79-year-old Ramiro Valdés, a most feared executioner and the 85-year-old sick and delirious Fidel, who in his few moments of lucidity interferes in his brother’s decision-making process. A difficult task for Raúl who worships the “Maximum Leader” as a father figure.

It is evident that the Cuban gerontocracy is concerned with the growing unrest and discontent that is sweeping the island. They have been forced to make inconsistent economic concessions. They are performing a cosmetic show for the gallery while launching a savage and systematic campaign of repression against the courageous resistance leadership, where Cubans of African descent and women are singled out for brutal punishment. Evidence of this cruelty is vividly documented on several website videos.

The Old Guard is holding their grip on power. They have gotten used to being the privileged class. They like the good life, comfortably settled with their families and comrades in the sheltered bunkers of their enduring Jurassic park. They seem to be unconcerned to the fact that Cuba remains without a back bench of young communist leaders. The former vice president, Carlos Lage, and the ex-secretary of state, Felipe Pérez Roque, both young heirs apparent, were thrown out from Raúl’s train, without hesitation, accused of being disloyal to the revolution.

Is this the train of change to be taken by Cuban exiles for an illusory trip to nowhere?

The island nation is a moral and economic catastrophe, where over 75 percent of the people’s food has to be brought from foreign suppliers and the people’s hopes for a better life is to escape in a raft or get married to a foreigner. The situation is worse now than it ever was. The malformed communist state is rotten to the core by corruption, inefficiency and greed. The youth behave with the sadness of hopelessness. The system is rapidly degenerating. It is a moral sickness that’s destroying the remaining healthy tissues. A convulse, almost grotesque spectacle of a dream that ended as a crime.

Raúl Castro is fully committed to survive clinging to power. But he is not good at the stage. Ill-trained by Fidel, the supreme showman, Raúl is putting up a poor performance. He has precluded the possibility of a national discussion on individual rights. The fundamental freedom to publicly dissent and criticize the government without fear of reprisal is not traveling in the utopian train. His octogenarian legion stand ready to fight against any threat to their total control of power, but they cannot fight off the inexorable revenge of time and growing rebellion.

Where did the idea that Raúl Castro is looking to negotiate a formula to change the system originate? In over 50 years, there is not a single piece of evidence to validate this premise. Raúl’s train of change is a fake assumption. A restless delusion feeding an ill-advised script, a make-believe train that runs in a fertile imagination.

But the tragic show must go on. It is obvious that we Cubans have difficulties for profound meditation and logical analysis. As a collective entity, we tend to turn politics into a farce of inordinate protagonism and elaborated fantasies. The facts are there to be seen. The revolution is an unburied corpse. The catastrophe provoked by Fidel and Raúl Castro leaves the Cuban nation a legacy of an immense moral emptiness, infinitely worse than its economic ruin.

Pedro Roig, former director of Radio and TV Martí and teaches at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami