The American newspaper The New York Times published on Monday a new editorial that refers to the economic transformations taking place in Cuba led by the government of Raul Castro, and have allowed citizens of the island “to create livelihoods that are not fully subject to state control.”
The pace of reform has been hesitant, says the newspaper, and notes that have had “with plenty of backtracking from the government’s old guard, Which views Further liberalization of the economy as an abdication of the socialist system Fidel Castro made sacrosanct.”
The article entitled The Cuban economy at a crossroads reviews the history of the island and its economic relations, since before 1959, when the United States was the largest importer of sugar, the main product of Cuba. After the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel Castro’s government strengthened state control and “brought` an ever more anemic and backward economy, one propped up by Moscow Largely,” reported The New York Times.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a collapse of the Cuban economy due to the crisis of the ’90s there was openness to foreign investment and self-employment. In 1999, Havana found a new benefactor in the newly elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez — which gave Cuban officials the ability to retighten state control of the economy”, it reads.
“But in the last two years Venezuela, which provides heavily subsidized oil to Cuba in exchange for medical services, has struggled with a worsening economic and political crisis, which could force it to cut off subsidies to Havana”, The New York Times adds and stresses that these circumstances have given more urgency to the debate on the speed of implementation of reforms in Cuba.
According to the renowned American media, there are two basic positions in this debate: “Old-guard leaders warn that a liberalized market economy could turn Cuba into a less egalitarian society and provide an opening for the United States to destabilize the government through a flood of private investment. Reformists, including some of the country’s leading economists, say the current state of the economy is untenable”.
“The reality is that the island’s social welfare achievements cannot be sustained if current economic and demographic trends hold”, The New York Times says, while citing some economic and social indicators of interest on the island, as the average salary equal to 28 percent of purchasing power before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the significant increase in emigration professionals, the decline in the birth rate in the country and the stagnation of the agricultural sector. Among the main challenges of the Cuban economy the American newspaper points to the realization of agreements from the new Foreign Investment Law and the elimination of the dual currency, “a process that could generate inflation.”
The Obama administration has observed the reforms in Cuba with skepticism, says the editorial “. The White House has eased restrictions on remittances and travel to the island, but it has done relatively little else to pare down the web of sanctions the United States has imposed on Cuba for decades”, añade.
The text explains that President Obama could help expand the role of Cuba’s small but growing entrepreneurial class by relaxing sanctions through executive authority and working with the growing number of lawmakers who want to expand business with Cuba. The White House could start that process by removing Cuba from the State Department list of countries that sponsor terrorist organizations and making it easier for Americans to provide start up-capital for independent small businesses.
“Yet against the picture of stagnation is the growth of a new class of private-sector employees, now nearly 500,000 strong. That’s not a huge number in a nation of 11 million, but they are a marvel of ingenuity in a place where running a private restaurant requires buying virtually all ingredients on the black market.” the newspaper acknowledges.
The editorial, which is the seventh one published by the digital and printed versions of the American newspaper since last October, described as “fickle” the attitude of the Cuban authorities regarding the emerging private sector. “While they welcome the employment and tax revenue it generates, bureaucrats are throttling businesses that are doing particularly well and forcing some to become joint ventures with the state. The underlying message seems to be: We want prosperity but not overly prosperous individuals”.
“Washington could empower the reformist camp by making it easier for Cuban entrepreneurs to get external financing and business training. That type of engagement is unlikely to succeed unless the United States abandons its policy of regime change. Cuba’s economic transformation may be proceeding slowly, but it could well lead to a more open society. For now, continued antagonism from Washington is only helping the old guard”, The New York Times concludes.
