Still Searching for Raul's "Reforms"

PUBLICADO PARA HOY 23 DE ABRIL


BY: THE HILL


It has not been a good week for the Castro regime.

Even left-leaning academics are skeptical about the results of the VI Communist Party Congress and Raul Castro's supposed "reforms."

First, from the Wall Street Journal (and also our "Quote of the Week"):

"They're keeping to the hard-line, ideological old guard," said Uva de Aragón, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. "The problem is you can't have Stalin and Lenin trying to be Gorbachev at the same time."

Then, from The Miami Herald:

Carmelo Mesa Lago, a University of Pittsburgh economist who is one of the most respected analysts of the Cuban economy, is more skeptical. Barring surprises once the Congress's resolutions are published, this is not comparable with China's or Vietnam's economic openings decades ago, he said.

In China and Vietnam, the opening started with sweeping agricultural reforms that gave farmers virtual ownership rights over their land. In Cuba, farmers will only get usage rights of the land, which will be limited to 10 years and subject to stringent restrictions, he said.

Mesa Lago said that the most important steps for Cuba to solve its economic crisis would be — in this order — giving private farmers greater property rights, implementing the announced layoffs of up to 1.5 million government workers, and implementing the new rules allowing people to own homes and cars. "The latest reforms are very timid, and with too many strings attached," he said.