Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 17 april 2018
Raul Castro leaves Cuba with new freedoms, deep problems

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN jor disruption for inefficient
and ANDREA RODRIGUEZ state businesses whose
HAVANA (AP) — In 2008 subsidized balance sheets
Raul Castro took over a will finally become under-
country where most people standable when they are
couldn't own computers or denominated in a single
cellphones, leave without currency. Those state busi-
permission, run most types nesses gained new com-
of private businesses or en- petitors as Castro expand-
ter resort hotels. ed the space for capitalism
Castro set about re-engi- in the Cuban economy
neering the system he had by permitting private en-
helped create and Cuba terprise in dozens of fields
opened dramatically over ranging from agriculture to
his decade in office. But hospitality to construction.
when Castro steps down "We've risen up economi-
Thursday after two terms as cally. The new possibilities
president he will leave his have changed my life, of
successor a host of prob- course," said Yanelis Gar-
lems that are deeper than cia, a 44-year-old mother
on the day his brother Fi- of three who saved mon-
del formally handed over ey from raising pigs in her
power. Cuba has nearly backyard to slowly build a
600,000 private entrepre- prosperous six-room bed-
neurs, more than 5 million and-breakfast and taxi
cellphones, a bustling real In this Jan. 28, 2018 file photo, Cuba's President Raul Castro looks at his watch as he walks with business in the central city
Cuba's Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, right, and National Assembly of People's
estate market and one of Power President Esteban Lazo Hernandez, left, to the unveiling of a replica of a statue of Cuba's of Santa Clara. "I've always
the world's fastest-growing independence hero Jose Marti in Havana, Cuba. liked having my own busi-
airports. Limited internet Associated Press ness to be able to provide
use is expanding fast, with for my family. It's been re-
thousands of Cubans in- tural problems with deep soon. nesses to receive subsi- ally good."Cubans fill thou-
stalling new home connec- and wide-ranging reforms "The political future of who- dized goods and services sands of flights a year to
tions this year. Foreign debt has many wondering how ever takes over in April de- like water and electricity Miami, Panama and Can-
has been paid. Tourism a successor without Cas- pends on the economic in Cuban pesos, then turn cun, where they cram duf-
numbers have more than tro's founding father cre- question," said Jose Raul around and charge their fel bags with gym socks
doubled since Castro and dentials will manage the Viera Linares, a former first relatively wealthy clients in and Xboxes for the vibrant
President Barack Obama country over the next five deputy minister of foreign convertible pesos at a sig- private sector and rising
re-established diplomatic or 10 years. affairs. "It's the possibility for nificant profit. middle class. But last Au-
relations in 2015, making "People in Cuba really young people to dream, Castro called for elimina- gust, the Cuban govern-
Cuba a destination for haven't processed yet to design their own future. tion of the dual curren- ment froze new licenses
nearly 5 million visitors a what it means to have a That's all based in the ma- cies from the beginning of for private bed-and-break-
year, despite a plunge in government without Raul terial wealth that this coun- his presidency, but never fasts, restaurants and other
relations under the Trump or Fidel leading it," said Yas- try is able to achieve." got around to it. Unlike his popular businesses, leaving
administration. sel Padron Kunakbaeva, a The greatest immediate brother Fidel, who extend- many Cubans questioning
On the other side of the prolific 27-year-old blog- challenge for Castro's ed his time in office until how their government en-
ledger, Cuba's Soviet-style ger who writes frequently expected successor — illness forced him to retire, visions a path to prosperity.
command economy still from what he describes as 57-year-old Vice President Raul has long made clear "We've seen necessary re-
employs three of every a Marxist, revolutionary per- Miguel Diaz-Canel Ber- that he would step down as forms and I think that in
four Cuban workers but spective. "We're entering mudez — is unwinding a president in 2018 as part of the future there will have
produces little. Private unknown territory." byzantine dual-currency a coordinated handoff to a to be more," said Norma
sector growth has been Tens of thousands of highly system featuring one type new generation of leaders. Chiang, a 77-year-old state
largely frozen. The aver- educated professionals of Cuban peso worth 4 He will remain first secretary accountant and auditor.
age monthly state salary is are abandoning the island cents and another that is of the Communist Party, "Self-employment needs to
$31 — so low that workers each year, leaving Cuba nearly a dollar. The system the country's guiding body, be broadened, little things
often live on stolen goods with the combination of was designed to insulate a but many Cubans expect like bakeries or food stands
and handouts from rela- third-world economy and state-run, egalitarian inter- him to move into semi-re- that can be in the hands
tives overseas. Foreign in- the demographics of a nal market using "national tirement in Santiago, the of individuals and not the
vestment remains anemic. graying European nation. money" from trade with the largest city in Cuba's east, state." Despite the image of
The island's infrastructure After a 2016 recession, outside world denominat- where he was born and led Raul Castro as an all-pow-
is falling deeper into disre- Cuba said growth was 1.6 ed in "convertible pesos." rebel troops in the country's erful military strongman,
pair. The break with Wash- percent last year, although The barrier between the 1959 revolution. many Cubans say back-
ington dashed dreams of official accounts remain two worlds swiftly collapsed In one of his final speeches and-forth moves and the
detente with the U.S., and opaque and questioned and the system has fos- last year he called once overall slow pace of reform
after two decades of get- by experts. The single-party tered big economic dis- again for the system's ur- have shown the difficulty of
ting Venezuelan subsidies government controls vir- tortions. Inefficient state gent elimination, a process modernizing a Soviet-era
totaling more than $6 bil- tually all forms of expres- enterprises receive mam- that many expect to start bureaucracy controlled by
lion a year, Cuba's patron sion and organization, with moth subsidies by obtain- in Diaz-Canel's first year in hundreds of thousands of
has collapsed economi- near-zero tolerance of pub- ing expensive convertible power. Eliminating dual civil servants who would be
cally with no replacement lic criticism or dissent. The pesos for the price of the currency is widely seen as threatened by a transition
in the wings. mood on the street is pes- cheaper "Cuban peso." necessary for Cuba's econ- into a market economy, a
Castro's inability or unwill- simistic, with few expect- The dual-currency system omy to grow, but it carries difficulty Castro's successor
ingness to fix Cuba's struc- ing a better future anytime also allows private busi- risks of inflation and ma- will also face.q