Cuba - Lonely Planet [24]
While ostensibly things have improved immeasurably in Cuba since the dark days of the período especial, the subsequent socio-economic changes have set in motion numerous seemingly irreversible trends. By dangling the carrot of capitalism in front of the Cuban populace in the form of all-inclusive tourism, limited private enterprise and the legalization of US dollar (1993 to 2004), the psychology of Cuba’s ‘one size fits all’ socialism has been irrevocably damaged.
But it’s not all bad news. On the international scene Cuba has successfully managed to wrest itself free from its once near-fatal addiction to sugarcane and has branched out confidently into other areas. Spearheading a mini-economic revival is a clutch of new industries such as tourism, nickel-mining and the island’s internationally famous medical sector. The latter service has played a large part in fostering a strong economic and political alliance with Cuba’s new friends in Venezuela. In exchange for Cuban doctors and teachers Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has furnished Cuba with millions of dollars worth of petroleum from his country’s abundant oil wells; this deal also enabled him to enact vital social reforms. It doesn’t end there. Thanks to the success of a medical exchange program known as Operación Milagros (which offered free laser-eye treatment to Venezuelans in Cuban hospitals), this cooperation has been extended to a number of other countries throughout the region and evidence of a new left tide in Latin American politics, which may one day challenge the hegemony of the United States, is growing.
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In 2005 Human Rights Watch condemned the travel restrictions imposed by both Cuba and the US, saying: ‘Both countries are sacrificing people’s freedom of movement to promote dead-end policies.’
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Much to the chagrin of his avowed enemies, Fidel Castro’s eagerly anticipated political demise didn’t precipitate the radical ‘regime change’ that had long been touted. Instead this gnarly veteran of the Revolution, Cold War and the economic chaos that followed was shunted off onto the sidelines relatively quietly in July 2006 following a serious, but not life-threatening, illness. Power was passed temporarily – and, in February 2008, permanently – onto his younger and slightly less dogmatic brother Raúl, whose demeanor was once likened by Castro biographer Tad Szulc to that of a ‘self-satisfied Spanish grocer.’
Despite some progressive but largely symbolic early reforms, Raúl’s first year in office sprung few big surprises during an annus horribilis in which the global economic downturn coupled with a trio of devastating hurricanes largely put the brakes on the country’s post–Special Period economic rebirth. Perhaps more important for the future of US-Cuban relations is the political reawakening that greeted the inauguration of Barack Obama in the United States in January 2009. While the Obama administration’s initial efforts will surely be devoted to tackling the global economic crisis and the problems faced in the Middle East, the noises made by the new government vis-à-vis better relations with Cuba have been the most open-minded and encouraging for decades. Following the easing of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans in March 2009, for the first time in nearly 50 years an end to the embargo and a total relaxation of US travel restrictions have started to look like a realistic possibility.
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TIMELINE
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BC 2000 The Guanahatabeys, Cuba’s earliest known Stone Age civilization is known to be living in the caves along the coast of present-day Pinar del Río province.
AD 1100 Taíno people start arriving in Cuba after leapfrogging their way across