Notes1 In 1920, at the Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Vladimir Lenin claimed that communism was “Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.”2 Somewhat ironically, socialist practice turned out to be a poor means of the modernization Lenin envisioned. The finer points of this problem have been embellished in the aftermath of the […]

Looking at it from different angles, everything indicates that Cuba’s purportedly socialist (or centrally planned) economy stands today at the end of a very long line. The Cuban government has reached a point at which it will have to get serious about the country’s economy once and for all. In the last few years the […]

Notes1 Actualmente el Gobierno de Cuba (en adelante el GC) está envuelto en un nuevo proceso de reiniciar ajustes (o reformas limitadas) socioeconómicos para superar la baja productividad y promover el crecimiento. El propósito de este ensayo es contribuir a la reflexión y análisis de los ajustes que se están realizando. El examen comienza con […]

Analizar las relaciones económicas y comerciales entre Cuba y Venezuela requiere desde un primer momento reconocer las múltiples vías para conocer un tema que ha tenido un papel singular en la política de ambos países. El solo hecho de que hoy, en el año 2011, se siga discutiendo sobre las características de esas relaciones es […]

From the earliest days of the revolution, efforts to legitimize the Marxist Leninist project centered on free and universal healthcare and education. Real and/or reported achievements, aided by a tight control and manipulation of statistics, together with vigorous propaganda efforts worldwide have created an exceptionally favorable international opinion of Cuba’s universal health and education systems. […]