The demise of socialism in Eastern Europe and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union brought an end to decades of preferential trading arrangements upon which the Cuban economy had come to rely. The initial response to this crisis by the Cuban government was, among other things, to issue a call for the Cuban economy […]

Fidel Castro, who is in his forty-second year in power and domination of Cuba’s political landscape, has utilized different political mechanisms to ensure his dictum over the Cuban polity. Among these mechanisms have been institutional conflict, rivalry and the use of parallel structures of government that have been the successful keys in perpetuating his unilateral […]

The position of Cuba in the world changed rapidly in the post-Cold War period. The demise of the Soviet Union and the end of its annual $5 billion subsidies caused grave economic problems and led to the economic crisis of 1989. The Cuban regime adjusted to the changed balance of power in the world by […]

Notes1 During 2000, the Center for the Study of a National Option (CEON), a research and analysis institute affiliated with the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Directorate in Miami, carried out a survey among civil society and opposition groups inside Cuba. Prodemocracy leaders in different parts of the country gathered focus groups to answer an in-depth questionnaire […]

The rental of rooms in private Cuban homes was not included among the original 1993 list of allowed selfemployed occupations because such activity was already legal at the time under a previous 1988 law (General Housing Law No. 65, article 74). That law allowed Cubans to freely rent up to two rooms in their own […]