Is Cuba at a turning point, or are we?

Global Exchange
May 05, 2008
by Shannon Biggs and Libby de Viaje

The news is out: changes are underfoot in Cuba since Raúl Castro took over leadership from his brother, Fidel. The ban prohibiting Cuban nationals from staying in hotels has been lifted. Cubans can now purchase cell phones, computers and plasma TVs. Farmers can till idle lands and purchase agricultural inputs, along with a host of other economic and social changes. For those whose only source of Cuban news is the mainstream press, Raúl himself is the change—he is depicted as more open-minded, and more open to the West, purposefully moving away from his brother's ironclad policies and towards a new, warmer relationship with the United States.

For those paying closer attention to Cuban events that the corporate media, it's not surprising that this isn't really the story—and certainly not the whole story. So what is changing in Cuba, and what are the forces behind it? And given the impending U.S. elections, what will change mean for relations between the two nations, and for the possibilities of lifting the travel ban?

Change itself is part of the Cuban socialist experiment. When there was great need for an influx of foreign currency in the late1980's, Fidel introduced hotel restrictions—much criticized by Cubans—in order to prioritize the limited hotel rooms for foreign travelers. The sudden shortage of oil, food and hard currency created when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990's ushered in the economic crunch known as the "Special Period". It was a time of great hardship—electrical brown outs and food shortages were commonplace. It was also a time of great innovation—including the development of new models of organic and urban farming.

In the early 2000's, still struggling to reach pre-collapse social and economic benchmarks, Cuba turned successfully toward new allies in emerging centers of power in Latin America and China. In 2005, Fidel spoke openly of the 20-year hardships, and acknowledged that if the nation did not address lingering wounds from the Special Period, that the revolution could be destroyed—not by outside forces—but from within. As Bob Guild, program director for Marazul, a U.S. company chartering travel to Cuba since 1979, states, "Clearly Fidel was paving the way to reestablish socialism in a more popular way."

Naturally, Raúl will make his mark and distinguish his leadership as his own. But beyond personal politics, the times, they are a-changin'. So who is responsible for taking the ideological offensive toward this current transformation—Fidel, or Raúl? In some ways, the answer is neither.

What the U.S. media missed in the midst of the leadership change was a national call for ideas and an open dialogue on the nation's problems from all levels of society, sparked by Raúl's July 26, 2007 speech. As Guild notes, "On that day, Raúl asked Cubans to challenge the government to come up with ways to improve the quality of life." For two months, a national debate took place as people put forth proposals on just about every topic under the Caribbean sun. As Guild says, "There were tens of thousands of democratic discussions, free from intimidation, at every level, on every block. Somewhere between one and two million proposals were submitted. Much of what is being done now is in response to those proposals."

With one breath U.S. officials laud Raúl for delivering change, with the next they suggest he is just an extension of his brother, still flanked by Fidel's old guard. But today's government includes both those from the armed revolutionary period and a growing cadre of youthful leaders. "The point is they want to show there is unity, that this is a country united in transition," says Global Exchange president, Walter Turner, who has been leading travel to Cuba for over a decade.

Another criticism lodged is that Cubans cannot afford to buy the new goods on offer; that changes are only on paper. "The Wall Street Journal pointed out that while it takes two days wages for an American to stay in a U.S. hotel, it takes three months wages for a Cuban to do the same," notes Guild. "As if we were comparing two developed capitalist countries. As if class inequity didn't exist. As if most Mexicans can afford to travel. The media is really missing the point. Not everything works right away, but these things are a response to the desires of the people."

And what do these changes mean stateside? Without setting any preconditions on Cuba for change, polls regularly show that 75% of U.S. citizens call for U.S. policy to change. "There has been a massive chasm of understanding between politicians in Washington and the American people around Cuba," says Guild, "It has always been an obscene policy based on overthrowing the Cuban system, and totally out of step with the rest of the world. Americans can travel freely to Iraq and North Korea. The unconstitutional ban on travel to Cuba has always been absurdly unjust."

In the media, however, there is a sense that changes in Cuba make it easier for the United States to change. While the top three Presidential candidates have all weighed in, no matter what the outcome in November, a new President could well bring a softening of U.S. policy.

Global Exchange and Marazul remain leaders working to change U.S. policy, most effectively by bringing scores of U.S. citizens to Cuba to learn for themselves about the island's people and politics. There is reason to be optimistic, but change here will require work ahead. As Guild says, "We must mobilize people who have traveled before. We must defend our fundamental right to travel—irrespective of changes in Cuba. That is where groups like GX and Marazul can have an effect. We must keep our demands based on the truth, and not on political opportunism."

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