Raúl Castro proclaimed last week that no one should expect Cuba to change its political and social system; Cuba will remain socialist/communist. But he and top economists do foresee a great overhaul of the system. NPR reported:
Rafael Hernandez, editor of the quarterly journal Temas in Havana, says Raul Castro is attempting to transform the Cuban state… “Cuban socialism is sick of hypercentralization, and everything is related to that. That is, to me, the monster to kill.”
Hernandez also mentioned that the model followed would not be a mirror of either Russia or China, but a breed all Cuba’s own. He, like Raúl, discouraged ideas that capitalism might be in the cards, saying that while there certainly are some on the island that are interested in that path, they are a minority that does not have power.
The point? Most Cubans want a socialist state, but one that fares better than the one they have. This should be familiar to the Americas, if equal and opposite: Latinobarómetro surveys of the region show that a great number of Latin American countries have confidence in the democratic system as the best political model, but simultaneously have stunningly low satisfaction rates with the functioning of democracy in their own countries.