Post-Castro Cuba presents opportunity for new liberties

Post-Castro Cuba presents opportunity for new liberties
By Paul Michael
Columnist
Published: Thursday, March 7, 2013

Cuban President Raúl Castro was elected to his fifth term in February,
and released a statement on Feb. 24 stating it would be his last. The
Castro regime, after a long 59 years, is set to end in 2018. Castro
mentioned some other constitutional reforms he wants to see implemented
before leaving office, such as age caps on politicians and a term limit
on the presidency. Despite the irony of 81-year-old Castro proposing age
limits on future politicians, these reforms could set Cuba on the path
to liberalization should they succeed.

The Castro brothers have been in power in Cuba since 1959. Former leader
Fidel Castro held the premiership until the position was abolished,
afterwards taking the presidency until 2006. Raúl Castro took the reins
as his older brother's health began to deteriorate, but had all the
while been an important figure behind the scenes. Their legacy has been
a fascinating one. On one hand their regime brought Cuba's literacy rate
up to 99.8 percent according to a 2010 study, passed antidiscrimination
laws and provided quality education for the majority of Cubans. On the
other hand there are the persecutions and executions of political
dissenters, the lack of a free market, hard limits on free speech and
other flagrant human rights abuses.

In the past two decades, with the fall of the Soviet Union and the
subsidies it provided, Cuba has found itself in financial straits. There
has been some economic liberalization in an attempt to stimulate the
Cuban economy. Small businesses have emerged in the form of restaurants
and private taxis, and restrictions on foreign travel have been relaxed
significantly.

While small concessions traditionally opened the floodgates in the
former Soviet bloc to radical liberalization, the Castros have been more
pragmatic in their reforms. Businesses operate, but with restrictions on
the amount of workers, an inability to apply for loans and other
intensive handicaps uncharacteristic of a true free market. Travel to
foreign countries, too, has limits on the amount of people allowed to
leave at one time in an effort to retain a healthy amount of the highly
educated, such as doctors and engineers.

Raúl Castro's announcement of an end to the Castro era and the proposed
constitutional amendments are to be a historic moment in the island's
history. As Cuba continues to struggle with economic troubles, it's
likely we'll see more shifts toward a free market. The younger Castro
has been careful in the policing of the freedoms afforded to small
businesses in Cuba, and suggested that a return to capitalism was
impossible. Still, could even these gradual changes have been predicted
in the Soviet Union's heyday?

Cuba is changing, and the end of the Castro family's long regime will be
the steppingstone to the country's eventual liberalization. President
Barack Obama's administration has said the reforms Castro proposed
aren't enough to lift the embargo, though some restrictions on medical
supplies, travel and food have been relaxed.

The end of the Castro regime will mean the beginning of a more liberal
Cuba. While Miguel Díaz-Canel, Castro's most likely successor, doesn't
seem interested in liberalizing the reluctant communist nation, the
pressures of an increasingly globalized world are bearing down on the
country's government. Cuba's liberalization seems inevitable in a
post-Castro Cuba, with the small reforms that have been allotted opening
the gates to a brighter tomorrow.

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