Raul Castro lifts economic hopes in Cuba

Raul Castro lifts economic hopes in Cuba
By Anthony Boadle Tue Jul 31, 7:10 PM ET

HAVANA (Reuters) - One year after taking over from his ailing brother as
Cuba's leader, Raul Castro is raising hopes of reforms to relieve
economic inefficiencies and food shortages but he is not offering
political change.

He became acting president last July 31 after his elder brother Fidel
Castro had emergency stomach surgery, giving up power for the first time
since Cuba's 1959 revolution.

For much of the last year, Raul Castro's main concern has been to
preserve political stability under communist rule, and the U.S.
government complained on Tuesday that there has been no move toward fair
elections in Cuba.

"It's a year to the day since the senior dictator decided to hand off
control of the country to the junior dictator. Unfortunately, I think
that's made little difference in the lives of the Cuban people," State
Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington.

Raul Castro has, however, recently turned his attention to
bread-and-butter issues. In a frank account of Cuba's most pressing
problems, he acknowledged last week in his first Revolution Day speech
that state salaries were clearly inadequate and agriculture absurdly
inefficient.

He said more foreign investment was welcome in Cuba, and that structural
changes were needed to produce more food and cut the country's reliance
on costly imports.

"People feel encouraged. The speech shows that Raul is in charge now.
Changes are coming," said a Havana maid who asked not to be named.

Her husband was less optimistic. "We've heard the same story for years.
I can only afford vegetables on my pay, never meat," he said before his
wife shut him up, saying he could be arrested.

Seven out of ten Cubans were born after the revolution and most people
are looking to improve their economic lot more than change the one-party
state.

With wages averaging just $14 a month, Raul Castro's focus on tough
economic issues is a refreshing change for many Cubans after years of
long-winded speeches by Fidel Castro.

"I hope Raul can fix this, because Cuba is a good country," said Armando
Laferte, 42, leaning against a beat up 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline, rap
music blaring from its two doors.

"We can't afford the things we most need, from toothpaste to tomato
paste," he complained. "It's not only the economy that has to open up.
Everything must."

REALISM

Fidel Castro, who turns 81 next month, has not appeared in public since
he stepped aside. He has written a series of editorial columns in recent
months but has shown no sign of returning to power and Raul Castro's
authority appears to be growing by the day.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma had a photograph of Raul Castro on
its front page on Tuesday while a new editorial by Fidel Castro on
Cuba's performance at the Panamerican Games in Brazil was tucked deep
inside on the sports pages.

Even dissidents welcomed Raul Castro's speech last week as a sign of
realism brought to government by the 76-year-old defense minister.

"Raul's speech creates expectations and hope, but we should be cautious.
There are hard-liners who are putting obstacles in the way of reform,"
said dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, adding that the country
is bankrupt.

In his apparent semi-retirement, Fidel Castro remains the formal head of
state and some Cubans expect him to try to slow reforms that reduce the
state's control over 90 percent of the economy.

While Raul Castro backed limited private initiative in the 1990s and is
viewed as a pragmatic reformer, there is nothing to suggest he intends
to follow China's path of opening up to a market economy under continued
Communist Party rule.

Fidel Castro often railed against inefficiencies but his reform attempts
were modest and he reined some in when he felt they might move Cuba too
far away from the socialist path.

An economist working for the government said major reforms in
agriculture are being drawn up and changes in property laws are also
under study.

Some Cubans are optimistic they will soon be able to buy cellular
phones, and freely buy and sell their cars and even their homes one day.
Others say any change will come slowly.

"Raul has good intentions, but these problems have existed for so long,"
said one housewife on the dilapidated doorstep of her central Havana home.

"It has always been politics first, second and third, and only then the
economy. I'd have to see change to believe it."

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