Posted on 08/24/2007 8:42:48 PM PDT by Lorianne
Raúl Castro has started to make cautious changes in Cuba which could signal plans for political and economic reform. Since he took over from his brother Fidel, dozens of dissidents have been released, an olive branch has been extended to Washington and there is talk of easing communist controls on property and agricultural production.
Three political prisoners have been freed in the past fortnight, the latest being Armando Betancourt Reina, a journalist jailed for 15 months after reporting on the eviction of a family in Camagüey.
Analysts said Raúl, 76, who has been acting president since illness forced his brother to step down last year, was experimenting with stealth reforms to improve living conditions and morale without eroding government control. The defence minister has a reputation for hard-nosed pragmatism, in contrast to the more ideological Fidel, who at 81 embodies the 1959 revolution but no longer manages policy.
The changes could easily be reversed, but they signal a desire to ease the poverty and sense of claustrophobia which afflicts many Cubans, said a senior western diplomat. "There is a real effort to look at what doesn't work and to change it. Raúl wants to make life more bearable. The hope is that by addressing some specific complaints the system can continue."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
One can only hope...
Hmm, maybe there is something to that rumor going around that his brother is dead.
Hmmmm.....very interesting. Softening up the population so that the government can announce that Castro is dead perhaps? Trying to ward off a revolt?
I’m sure Hugo will have something to say about it
If he can avoid being swallowed up by his own problems.
Shades of Gorbachev's perestroika and glastnost. But totalitarian communism is unreformable, as Gorby discovered to his dismay. The whole fricking mess collpased like a house of cards. The machine is rigged with booby traps and Cuba can expect the same outcome if Raul tries to tinker with it.
Hang both brothers from a lamppost.
If Fidel is already dead, hang him from a lamppost anyway...
Free healthcare isn't enough? Don't let Michael Moore know.
been dead ....stinks on ice dead...
what in the heck is "hardnosed pragmatism?" Is that like "soft hardness," or "light darkness?"
I expect that the second statement carries more weight than the first.
More like "Raul wants to keep his head on his shoulders when the dam breaks."
Let’s hope he can’t
Raul would NEVER do this if Fidel were alive. Fidel died around the 15th of August. It’s not a rumor.
Yep.
If Fidel is already dead, hang him from a lamppost anyway...
Double yep.
L
Is that when the cases of Glade air-freshener and big jugs of Febreeze started showing up at the Presidential Palace? ;-)
HA...he’s not been at the palace...due to his on going health he was moved to a house without stairs [he could NO longer climb stairs]. Then suddenly his health took a nose dive he was rushed back to the hospital...had 2 more surgeries...then fatal septicemia set in...he’s now on ICE...
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