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 Editorials | Opinions | April 2008 
Castro's 'Reforms' Will Not End Tyranny
 PVNN
 |  | Real economic reform - that is, allowing Cubans to work where they choose, earn what they can and buy all they need and want - will require the type of willingness to change that Castro has not demonstrated since being elevated on Feb. 24 or during the almost 50 years he was No. 2 to his brother Fidel. |  | | | |
Cubans are now free to buy toasters. But there's no guarantee there always will be bread at the store.
Cubans are now free to buy computers. But there's no guarantee that the dictatorship's censors will allow you to visit whatever Web site you want - if you can find an Internet connection.
And as of Monday night, Cubans are now free to take a vacation at one of the island's tourist hotels. But as for taking an overseas trip, as always that depends on whether the government grants you permission to leave the island.
The so-called "reforms" recently announced by dictator Raul Castro's government may provide some creature comforts - that is, if Cubans can afford them on their average salary of about $250 per year - but the fundamental nature of the Havana regime remains unchanged.
The command economy is a disaster. Decades of mismanagement have created an economic disparity that has impoverished and starved many Cubans while enriching the communist, military and other elites who benefit from tourism and other hard-currency dealings with foreign businesses.
There is no denying the symbolic and propagandistic effects of Castro's recent moves. One news account described Cuban hotel workers breaking into cheers upon learning their countrymen would be able to eat in hotel restaurants or even spend the night. Accusations that Cuba runs a "tourist apartheid" now ring a little less true. But the lifting of restrictions on appliances, cell phones and hotel stays is as much about generating more cash for the regime as it is allowing Cubans a few amenities.
Real economic reform - that is, allowing Cubans to work where they choose, earn what they can and buy all they need and want - will require the type of willingness to change that Castro has not demonstrated since being elevated on Feb. 24 or during the almost 50 years he was No. 2 to his brother Fidel. He will have to do more than give a few speeches and change a few rules before he can seriously be considered a real reformer.
And freedom - in all its forms: freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom to travel, etc. - is still against the law. Dissidents and others critical of the regime like the Damas De Blanco, the "ladies in white" who march each week on behalf of their imprisoned loved ones, and like Yoani Sanchez, whose blog (www.desdecuba.com/generaciony) is one of the most popular Cuba-based Web sites, are harassed, threatened and warned of more severe consequences if they persist with their opposition.
And the gulag, one of the Castro brothers' most hideous contributions to Cuba and the world, still holds hundreds if not thousands of journalists, librarians, democracy and human rights activists and others who refused to remain silent in the face of tyranny. The lifting of hotel restrictions does not create any room for them at Cuban inns.
The recent "reforms" announced may provide some relief from the torture and despair that is daily life in Cuba. But under Raul Castro, the fundamental nature of that life is unchanged. |
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