Raul's (Unimpressive) Economic "Reforms"

at 10:27 AM Monday, April 11, 2011


Media reports keep putting a happy face on the Castro regime's licensing of a limited number of self-employment activities.

Throughout the week, there have been various stories about the nearly 180,000 new licenses granted since Cuban dictator Raul Castro reinstated them last year. (Remember that the Castros already went through this self-employment charade in the 1990's.)

However, the real picture is not so rosy.

Buried into an EFE story (and missing from all others) was a very revealing fact from Castro's Ministry of Labor:

Over 42,000 of the newly granted self-employment licenses have been cancelled or returned.

That means one in four Cubans that have received a license (temporarily lease) from the Castro regime for self-employment have found them to be useless.

That's a serious systemic problem.

And what about the 500,000 state layoffs that were so widely reported last year as "the centerpiece" of Raul Castro's "reforms"?

These layoffs were supposed to have been concluded by last week (March 31st to be exact).

Most uninformed observers assume that they've already taken place.

Far from the truth.

As Reuters reported:

"Cuba's program to slash 500,000 state jobs nationwide has barely gotten off the ground in the provinces, as officials scramble to provide alternatives and deal with unease and anger over the layoffs."

So allow us to summarize the current state of Raul's economic "reforms":

1. One in four self-employment licenses have been canceled or returned.
2. There's been absolutely no movement on the 500,000 layoffs.
3. The Cuban people are still denied any ownership rights whatsoever.

And as for political rights, which should be the priority, even talk of them remains severely punishable.

Pretty unimpressive.