Among the more important questions to surface in the wake of Hugo Chávez’s death on March 5: Will chavismo survive? The answer, usually given in the affirmative, frequently invokes a previous era of Latin American history. For example, a column on the London Review of Book’s website, “Chavez Hasta Siempre,” draws a parallel to Che […]
Report in NY Times about the impending lay-off of over 500,000 employees was jarring in the context of our own stagnant economy. The junior Castro brother, Raúl, is following through on his previous pledges to make Cuba’s centralized, Socialist economy more efficient and to open up opportunities to its enterprising citizens. This begs the question if Cuba will replicate China’s success with its State capitalism model.
In recent days and weeks Fidel Castro has reappeared everywhere in Cuba—on television, on the radio, in the news—but he has made it, too, into international exchanges again. Ever the clever statesman, he is proving once more that he knows what to say and when to say it to participate in the most relevant international […]
The Washington Post yesterday and a few other sources pointed out that, interestingly, Fidel Castro has not appeared publicly alongside his brother Raúl since he stepped down from the presidency four years ago. And so the seed was planted, and everything begins to look like evidence. Raúl’s recent agreements to release Cuban prisoners and Fidel’s […]
In spite of the decades of pressure coming from the United States, Canada has maintained consistently cordial relations with Cuba—in fact, Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the hemisphere to maintain uninterrupted diplomatic relations with Cuba following the revolution in 1959. [Interesting Wikipedia fact of the week: Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre […]
Spending a week in Tuscany has its benefits, certainly, but without dependable Internet access and Western Hemisphere-centered news items, it seems I’ve missed a number of notable (and indeed, unusual/surprising/jaw-dropping) events in Cuba… Here are a few of the ones I’m picking up in the airport now. What else have I missed? Cuba indicates that […]
Already there has been lots of speculation on why Fidel Castro chose this moment specifically to give himself a bigger presence in Cuban life than he has had for the last several years, during which he had taken on the role of a nearly invisible but omnipresent source of critical opinion through his written commentaries. […]
Fidel Castro returns to Cuban TV (NPR) After so very few public appearances since intestinal surgery in 2006, this was news indeed. Fidel Castro appeared on Mesa Redonda, a prominent talk show on Cuban television, to discuss world events. His comments included an accusation that the United States was the culprit in the sinking of […]
The July/August issue of Foreign Policy includes a piece by George B.N. Ayittey that lists what he designates are the world’s worst dictators. The media is jumping all over his unapologetic account. Kim Jong Il places at number one in these “top 23,” and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran) is at number eight, but Raúl Castro is given a spot […]
These are actually by no means “the” answers. But here are mine: Are Communist Party officials a bit overoptimistic when they say, as they frequently do, that “the future of the Revolution is guaranteed”? Overoptimistic yes, but completely off base, no. Many Cubans beyond the so-called “dissident” community are frustrated with the Cuban political and […]
Supporters and opponents alike frequently look to the Cuban regime with the same impression: the current political cadre is aging without indicating a clear method of succession. The average age of Raúl Castro’s cabinet is over 70. Fidel Castro is 83, and Raúl is 78. The general sense that the regime might successfully pull off a […]
Cuba offers payback plan for frozen bank accounts (Reuters) After freezing hundreds of millions of foreign businesses’ dollars in Cuban banks over the last 1-2 years, Havana is now offering a 2 percent interest rate and a five-year plan to pay these funds out to the companies that are owed. One loophole-sounding proviso: the payments […]
Fascinating. But apparently quite true. In 1959 or so, Fidel as new Commander-in-Chief in Cuba had all golf courses on the island razed but one 9-hole course in Havana and an 18-hole course in Varadero. Following in his socialist footsteps much more recently, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez announced that he would shut down luxury golf courses in that […]
This was a week of international attention for Cuba. On Tuesday, Orlando Zapata Tamayo—a 42-year-old plumber imprisoned in 2003 who was serving a 36-year sentence for disobedience of the government, among other charges—died in prison after an 85-day hunger strike in protest of inhumane prison conditions. His death drew condemnation from the United States, Canada, Spain […]
The AP ran a story today titled, “US-Cuba immigration talks under cloud of mistrust.” The course of the article makes the current US-Cuba relationship and future prospects look pretty dismal. But we had always expected progress to be slow, and mutual recriminations do not disappear overnight. I, for one, am not discouraged. Still, one cannot […]