Medical historians, anthropologists, physicians and public health researchers have all written favorable assessments of the Castro regime’s health initiatives. The 1959 revolution and transition to socialism have been credited with rapidly transforming Cuba’s mortality profile (Danielson, 1977; Danielson, 1979; Danielson, 1981; Elling, 1989; Gilpin, 1991; Waitzkin, 1983), eliminating class-based disparities in health status and access […]

Notes1 Cuba is facing an energy crisis today. Efforts by the Government of Cuba to purchase and install small generators seem like an attempt to get quick results without an analysis of long-term costs. At this time, energy consumption is heavily subsidized, something that is possible thanks to Venezuelan subsidies (estimated at US 2 billion […]

The last fifty years have been the most turbulent in the long history of the Cuban sugar industry.1 On the heels of the revolutionary movement’s rise to power came agrarian reform, nationalization of the sugar mills and the transfer of Cuba’s entire sugar industry—except for small growers—into state ownership, entailing the creation of a host […]

In the mid 1990s, Cuba implemented a growth-driven strategy to attract remittances from abroad. The fundamental elements of this strategy consisted of the legalization of the U.S. dollar, the expansion of a national network of state-run “dollar stores” (tiendas de recaudación de divisas—TRDs), the development of government-operated exchange bureaus (Casas de Cambio, S.A.—CADECAS), and the […]

Corruption poses an insidious challenge to political legitimacy and economic growth in countries across the world. In many new democracies, the transition away from authoritarian rule has failed to end corrupt practices and even created new opportunities to harness public resources for private enrichment. Similarly, Cuba’s success or failure in controlling corruption will quickly emerge […]