Cuban blacks and mulattos will suffer the most with the elimination of a million government jobs, which could easily become a racial problem, consequence of the radical reforms imposed, and ‘must be addressed as a priority’, points out a report from Cuban academic Esteban Morales.
Cuban government companies and cooperatives repeatedly “inefficient” (non profitable) will be handed to the private sector or liquidated, according to the reforms program approved by the island’s VI Communist Party congress and which was officially published Monday.
Cuba hopes to counter US worries over its plans to start its first full-scale offshore oil exploration in a rare presentation this week to an energy audience outside the island.
The Cuban government said Monday that it plans to study ways to allow residents of the island to travel abroad as tourists, suggesting it will ease the bureaucratic hurdles and outright restrictions that prevent many residents from leaving.
The Cuban revolution leader Fidel Castro in his latest ‘Reflections’ column “The brutal and turbulent North” writes about China’s report on human rights in the United States, which is basically a counter report on Washington’s annual document on the human rights situation in each of the world’s countries.
Cuba's Communist Party selected President Raúl Castro and hard-liners from the old guard to steer wide-ranging reforms of the island's crumbling economy. As expected, Raúl Castro, 79, was chosen at a four-day party congress to replace his older brother Fidel Castro as first secretary of the ruling party's Central Committee.
Cuba says it will allow people to buy and sell their homes for the first time since the communist revolution in 1959. For the past 50 years, Cubans have only been allowed to pass on their homes to their children, or to swap them through a complicated and often corrupt system.
Cuba will consider placing term limits on its leaders to assure new blood in the government, President Raul Castro said in a speech kicking off a Communist Party congress on the island he and his brother have led for more than five decades.
Cuba announced Friday that it will have to spend 25% more than its original estimates to pay the cost of food imports due to the international surge in commodity prices.
Former US president Jimmy Carter - on a visit to Cuba - has criticized US policy towards the island. Carter said the decades-long US trade embargo and travel ban damaged the Cuban people and hindered rather than helped reform.
He also urged the Cuban government to move towards democracy and allow complete freedom of speech.