Opinion

The “Minor” Details of Cuba’s Reforms

A few days ago I went shopping in a small supermarket in a neighborhood here in Havana. It’s a storefront that’s barely 25 steps wide and 20 steps deep. Since the issue of impending mass layoffs across Cuba was fresh on everyone’s mind, I counted the number of workers there and observed how they worked.

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Those Who Hold the Power

I still don’t know who the “good guys” are – the Catholics, Protestants or the atheists, or the communists or social-democrats. I still don’t know if there is a right side. I only feel more and more fearful of those who are able to come to power – the fanatics and even the leaders.

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Gioconda Belli on Fidel Castro’s Return

It must be incredible to come back from the dead. That’s what Fidel has done, one more entry in his book of innumerable combats. I have a journalist friend in California, an expert in all things Cuban, who has been waiting four years for Fidel to die just so she can despair.

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Will Cuba Surrender to International Capital?

The bureaucracy has two paths: merge with the people by sharing power with the workers, or try to swim with the sharks of foreign capital, which in our case —since we’re not big fish like in China or Russia— would mean our being devoured. I refuse to believe that this latter is what Fidel and Raul want.

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Deciphering Cuba’s Fidel Castro

When assuring that the model no longer works, the Commandant facilitated the path being pursued by General Raul Castro so that he can change everything that he judges necessary to change, without other political leaders being able to oppose him, shielded behind the flag of “Fidelism.”

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My Grandmother and Me

She was the heart of our family. When she died suddenly, on September 15, we believed that everything would end for us. We thought that in her casket was not only leaving her perfect body, her beautiful face and her tender smile, but that our happiness, the family’s unity and the love of all the siblings, cousins and nephews would also leave.

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Obama-Berman Waiting Game on Cuba

Many of you are wondering and waiting, when will the Presidential Announcement on new U.S. Cuba Travel regulations be made? Will Congress take up HR. 4645, the Cuba Ag/Travel legislation? This is what we do know. The President’s expected announcement sits in the White House waiting for..? Waiting for what?

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Agreed, We Need a Different Model

The debate is sometimes sharp, at moments tense, closed; nor is it between individuals under the same conditions. Many revolutionaries and communists debate from the inside, which involves precariousness, patience and tolerance.

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