Raul’s Reforms as Strategy for Survival

Raul's Reforms as Strategy for Survival / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya

Posted on June 5, 2014



Six years since General-President Raúl Castro assumed power in Cuba; it

could be argued that almost as many legal changes have been implemented

as were introduced during the early days of the revolution and, without

a doubt, a lot more than in the four decades preceding "Raulismo"



Viewed in perspective, Raúl's reforms are significant and are -at least

in appearance- a break from Fidel's directive, marked by immobility, by

such measures as:



Distribution of land in usufruct to private farmers and cooperatives

Approval of "non-state forms of production" or "self-employment"

(private business), which eliminates State monopoly on employment

Approval of sales and purchases of real estate, cars, and other goods ,

as well as lodging for Cuban nationals in hard currency hotels and

tourist facilities

Authorization for free contract of cellular telephony and internet

connections; sales of computers, printers and other hardware in stores

accepting only dollars

Comprehensive migration reform act, one of the most radical

transformations, conditionally eliminating "authorizations" for exit and

entry and extending stays abroad up to 24 months

And more recently, the new Foreign Investment Law, which relaxes some

limitations of previous legislation established in the 90's, though it

retains others

Such measures should be a substantial turn-around in a society subjected

to a centralism which previously invalidated all vestiges of autonomy.

In fact, some foreign media exaggerate the process, multiplying, to the

point of fable, the effects of government measures as if this were an

effective socioeconomic change. Unfortunately, such changes have been

more nominal than real for Cubans. There have been no benefits at the

macroeconomic level that indicate a positive trend towards ending the

crisis.



In addition, the past few years denote a regression, not only in the

economic indicators, but also in social benefits, such as health and

education, the former severely affected by the exportation of

professionals under contract, involving substantial hard currency income

for the regime –particularly through physicians and technical staff tied

to that field- and the latter, by the shortage and/or disqualification

of teachers due to low wages, among other reasons.



The reforms are significant and constitute a break with Fidel's directives.



It is not a secret, even to the most optimistic mouthpieces of the

mercantile post-Castro era that "Raulist changes" are just the best

survival strategy of the Castrocracy, because no change in Cuba will be

real unless it is accompanied by political change.



European and other economic powerhouses put their expectations in a kind

of quasi-race to access untapped markets before the United States and

economically powerful sectors of the Cuban exile community assume

prominence on the Island, while native citizens [living in Cuba] are

just hostages of those interests and of the government which,

nevertheless, continues to dominate life and property. Of course, nobody

cares; as if the uncertain fate of 11 million Cubans was a deserved

punishment or simply that the exclusion was a matter of "collateral

damage" in the battle for the market.



For the powerful, it is not about empathy any more, with the "beautiful

people" with smiling faces peeking out of tourist postcards, wielding

either rifles or maracas indistinctively, according to the occasion, or

–as demonstrated recently- marching, submissive and happy, before the

official podium every May Day. It's about an opportunity to be first and

to arrive on time, capital in hand. Cubans, sadly, don't have a goddamn

way of defending themselves against that other power that far exceeds

the one that has dominated them for over half a century. It turns out

that the Cuban revolution was a waste of time. At the end, capital

always wins. And long live Raulismo!



Source: Raul's Reforms as Strategy for Survival / 14ymedio, Miriam

Celaya | Translating Cuba -

http://translatingcuba.com/rauls-reforms-as-strategy-for-survival-14ymedio-miriam-celaya/