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Andres Oppenheimer
Cuba's announcement at the end of its much-awaited
Hours after the conclusion of the
Omar Everleny Perez, deputy director of the
Everleny Perez said the economic "transformation" of Cuba will give the private sector "a significant weight, which it has not had in the past." He said that, among other things, Cuba will eliminate more than 1 million jobs to reduce its "bloated" government payroll -- the figure may be as high a 1.5 million -- and that it will give land to private farmers so that they can increase food production.
Rolando Anillo, an attorney with the Miami firm Fowler, Rodriguez Valdes-Fauli who visits Cuba frequently, agrees that "for the first time, there's a deeper economic reform" that allows things such as private ownership of homes or cars.
Until now, Cubans could only "exchange" their state-owned homes, a mechanism that has triggered a massive housing black market because people wanting to move to a bigger house have to pay extra cash under the table to the person giving up the property.
"It will have a huge impact," Anillo says. "It can unleash a big movement of capital because there are people who have money, and they will start to repair and improve their homes."
Carmelo Mesa Lago, a
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.
My opinion: Unlike Cuba's previous economic reforms, which the regime quickly reversed as soon as it got new subsidies from the former Soviet Union or Venezuela, this one may go down in history as the first official move toward a market economy. The reason: The regime's octogenarian leaders are not likely to be around to convene a new
But the new reforms will not be implemented by the current crowd of octogenarian political dinosaurs. As Cuba's military dictator Gen. Raúl Castro himself reminded the Party's
What Cuba's gerontocracy has done is buy time so that they don't risk opening a process of gradual freedoms that could land them in jail, like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. They want to die in bed, peacefully, making sure that their successors will later credit them with having started Cuba's economic opening.
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At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
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World - Cuba's Regime Buys Time for Aging Leaders | Global Viewpoint