Sweeping "Changes" Under the Tanks

at 5:59 AM Wednesday, April 20, 2011


BY: THE HILL


The Castro brothers knew all-too-well what a farce their VI Communist Party Congress (CCP) was going to be.

That's why they planned for the CCP to begin with a military parade, in order to put the tanks on the streets -- warning the Cuban people to not dare complain.

And there's certainly lots to complain about.

Here are the take-aways from the CCP:

1. There's no future or hope for young people in Cuba.

Cuba will continue to be ruled by octogenarian dictators for the next three decades -- unless they die or are removed from power beforehand.

2. Social programs will be cut without tangible relief.

Not even the billions in the Castro's Swiss bank accounts can prevent Cuba from going bankrupt.

Yet, instead of giving the Cuban people the political and economic freedoms needed to forge a new path, or even cutting from the regime's expensive military and repressive machinery -- they chose to target the Cuban people's bread crumbs (e.g. state jobs and ration card).

3. Economic changes will be limited to re-enacting the self-employment charade of the 1990's.

In order to deal with the economic crisis of the 1990's, the Castro regime allowed the leasing and licensing of 157 self-employment crafts. (Pursuant to obtaining economic relief from Chavez's oil subsidies, the regime eliminated them soon thereafter.)

However, in this latest reenactment of self-employment, the regime will now allow 178 crafts .

Thus, the extent of the Castro regime's economic "changes" can be quantified by 21 new permissible trades and crafts.

4. In the future, Cubans may be permitted to sell homes that they don't really own.

Huh?

According to Castro's 1976 Constitution (as Amended), homes in Cuba are "socialist State property" -- in other words, they belong to the regime.

For decades, the regime has allowed Cubans to "exchange" the home in which they reside (usually for a smaller one) through a complex and corrupt system called "permutas."

So in order to grab a headline (and a talking point for apologists), Castro announced -- without offering any details -- that Cubans may soon be permitted to "sell" the homes in which they reside.

Of course, if this ever takes place, they'll predictably create a fictitous market (an anomaly), in which they'll decide (and control) to whom it can be sold and for what "price" (same as before).

Why? Because it's ultimately State property.

The fact remains private property requires individual legal guarantees and recourse -- that means, a division of powers, a bill of rights and an independent judiciary. All of which have been discraded by the Castro regime.

Anything else is semantics -- or simply hot air.

So where are the "sweeping changes" the media and "experts" anticipated throughout the weekend?

They obviously got "swept under the tanks."