- Revolution in the RevolutionRecent Developments in the Cuban Economy
When President Fidel Castro experienced a medical emergency on July 31, 2006, First Vice President Raúl Castro assumed the role of acting president and was then declared president in February 2008 by the National Assembly. Hopes for change were high relative to the almost half century of Fidel’s presidency, because Raúl was considered to be more pragmatic than Fidel. During the first years of Raúl’s acting and then full presidency, policy changes were modest, uncertain, and hesitant. However, after deliberation and some policy experimentation, the pace of reform accelerated in 2010.
In his first major speech in July 2007, Raúl acknowledged the difficulties that the economy faced and the dimension of the reform effort that would be needed to overcome its problems. “To have more, we have to begin by producing more, with a sense of rationality and efficiency, so that we may reduce imports, especially of food products—that may be grown here—whose domestic production is still a long way away from meeting the needs of the population.”1 This contrasted with [End Page 246] the complacency of the last years of the Fidel era. Raúl emphasized the necessity of improving agriculture as well as industry and mentioned the possibility of increasing direct foreign investment. He discussed “social indiscipline” and the expansion of the underground economy. He assured citizens that the government was studying these issues and would soon introduce appropriate policies. In subsequent speeches—shorter and less frequent than those of his elder brother—Raúl demonstrated increased pragmatism and decreased ideological rigidity. He also has shown an awareness of the need to break with some traditional Cuban economic institutions and policies. Such change was ultimately necessary in his view for political reasons, to ensure the long-term viability of Cuba as an independent nation. He affirmed: “We are facing unpleasant realities, but we do not close our eyes to them. We are convinced that we need to break away from dogmas and assume firmly and confidently the ongoing upgrading of our economic model in order to set the foundations of the irreversibility of Cuban socialism and its development, which we know is the guarantee of our national sovereignty and independence.”2
He did not view such changes as adoption of any sort of capitalism but instead considered it an “updating” or “modernization” (actualización) of Cuban socialism. However, Raúl’s concept of socialism reflected a change from the fidelista view: it no longer implied an aspiration to equal outcomes. “Socialism means social justice and equality, but equality of rights and opportunities, not salaries. Equality does not mean egalitarianism. This is, in the end, another form of exploitation, that of the exploitation of the responsible worker by the one who is not, or even worse, by the slothful.”3 Raúl also emphasized that policy changes were to be introduced with deliberativeness and caution. This was certainly the approach prior to mid-2010.
The major reforms of 2010 began with the proposal to downsize employment in the state sector...