Cuban media finally published the outcome of last month’s Communist Party Congress: a list of 313 “guidelines” to shape economic reforms in Cuba. The items include mention of changes across a number of sectors and important issue areas—from ration books (and their gradual retirement) to private sector employment (not far beyond barbers but including family restaurants), and from enabling the sale of houses and cars to expanding the ability of Cubans to travel abroad.
The published items still do not describe methods for implementation, but they display the broad set of intentions that color Havana’s vision for the future. These intentions alone indicate and confirm a willingness for change that has now been clear for quite some time from Raúl Castro and Cuban leadership.
The last item (expanding the ability of Cubans to travel abroad) is of particular interest, as we’ve been tracking for months many of the other outlined reforms. This last is rather new on our radar. The Congress apparently agreed “to study a policy that will allow Cubans resident in the country to travel abroad as tourists.” No further details are given, and there is no mention of the infamous carta blanca (“white card”), the exit visa required and often denied to Cuban residents attempting to travel abroad. Under the current system, travel abroad is not illegal technically, but the series of requirements to depart prevents most Cubans from doing so.
So our immediate questions would be:
- What will happen to the carta blanca?
- What is the projected timeline for implementation of such a reform?
- What economic benefit does the Cuban government hope to take from this reform?
The benefits are not immediately clear. In fact Oscar Espinosa Chepe, one of the first Cuban economists to respond to this item, was skeptical: he argued that it could create similar chaos to the beginning of the Castro era when many Cubans were leaving the island. A lot of Cubans would depart for good, he argues, because of the current economic challenges in Cuba.
But it is no doubt more reasonable to accept that one cannot keep an island of people in lockdown.
(AFP/Getty photo)