The Cuban government has launched an aggressive campaign on its proposed economic reforms as it tries to whip up public opinion enthusiasm and in its own ranks ahead of a Communist Party congress to approve them in April.
The Cuban government is proposing the orderly elimination of the rations’ card according to a document prepared for the ruling party Communist Congress scheduled for April 2011.
Cuban President Raul Castro told unionists to accept layoffs and reforms that open the way for private enterprise as necessary for the survival of socialism.
Cuban government has outlined the taxes that will have to be paid by the country's growing number of self-employed workers. It is the latest stage of President Raul Castro's reforms to move Cuba away from a solely state-run economy.
The Cuban government will cut more than 500,000 state jobs by March as part of a plan to reduce inefficiencies, the country’s largest union said in a statement. The reductions are part of President Raúl Castro’s goal of eliminating 1 million state jobs by 2015, according to the statement.
The cash-strapped Cuban government will allow foreign investors to use state-owned land for up to 99 years in a change that is likely to bring developments of luxury golf courses to the communist island.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Roman Catholic archbishop of Havana, told The Washington Post that Cuban President Raul Castro wants “an opening” with the United States.
Cuban president Raul Castro criticized the attitudes of national and provincial leaders who he said “lacked the moral courage to admit their shortcomings”. The remarks follow on an article from the official newspaper Granma referred to the still non concluded rehabilitation of Santiago de Cuba’s aqueduct, which Raul Castro said reveals “the lack of planning to carry out effective work that is every Cuban’s duty to the community and the revolution”.
Cuban president Raul Castro sacked Light Industry minister Jose Hermandez, the latest of an on-going cabinet reshuffle with the purpose of implanting a policy of import-substitution to address the growing economic crisis.
Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas said on Sunday that the Catholic Church notified him that Raul Castro’s regime on Monday will begin taking “preliminary steps” regarding ill political prisoners and that a meeting is scheduled for this week “to speak about releases”.