Where is fidel castro now

We had forgotten that we had the right to protest and had the right to demand freedoms. It has also allowed us to imagine another thing we had forgotten—that we have a country and that it is possible to recover it. After living in Cuba for forty-nine years, this narrative seems familiar to me, one in which there is always an attic, a second floor, or a basement, where the government decisions are concealed.

That seems to be the point of the Somos continuidad , right? But it feels less like a motto than a prayer sometimes. I think the leaders realize that, whatever continuity they seek, in terms of retaining power, everyone is seeking, needing some change.

What other changes are in the offing? Not many, at least on the surface. Embassy in Havana. The atmosphere of fledgling good will that had characterized the Obama era was replaced under Trump by one of open hostility.

The evidence available suggests that Cuba has weathered the coronavirus pandemic quite well, with an official count of five hundred and ninety-one deaths, in a population of eleven million, but the lockdown measures hit the economy hard.

With virtually no outsiders allowed in for most of the past year, the economy shrank a staggering eleven per cent in , while imports dropped by around forty per cent, because the state did not have the money to pay for them. As a result, Cubans are facing scarcities of basic food items, medicines, and household essentials—as they did in the early-to-mid nineties, during the so-called special period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union—and many people are forced to spend several hours each day seeking the means of daily survival.

Earlier this month, in a sign of the times, the government announced key agricultural reforms, overturning decades-old laws that prohibited people from slaughtering their own cattle or selling beef and milk without state permission. Under that system, Cubans who are fortunate enough to have access to U. Yet, amid the shortages and general belt-tightening, the biopharmaceutical industry has entered final-phase trials at home and in Iran and Venezuela, with several of its own COVID vaccines.

The vaccines have been given patriotic names, such as Mambisa , for the guerrilla group that fought for independence from Spain in the nineteenth century. The government has announced hopes to vaccinate more than half the population by August, and to begin exporting vaccines by the end of the year. Cuba could become a regional savior and earn some badly needed money from the commercial vaccine market. His government recently legalized a tranche of previously restricted professions for so-called cuentapropistas , people working for themselves, outside of the state sector.

One prospective investor, the Cuban-American entrepreneur Hugo Cancio , told me that he believed that long-standing restrictions on investments by Cuban-Americans would soon be lifted. Ration books for staple foods are disappearing and with them, subsidized prices. Food and clothing costs have doubled or tripled in Cuba in the past year. Utility prices have increased by factors of four or five. Cuban state salaries have risen since economic liberalization, but not that much.

Consequently, many Cubans operate outside of the law, trading in everything from clothing to scrap metal or gasoline stolen from the state. Young Cubans also want more free speech. While Cubans can and do complain privately, the Cuban government has long restricted civil liberties.

Social media only recently became legal and relatively widespread in Cuba. Last year, a dissident artists movement organized via WhatsApp and gained enough popular support to force the government into unprecedented negotiations about expanding freedom of expression in Cuba.

A crackdown followed, with some dissidents jailed. But calls for free expression persist among younger Cubans. Most Cubans also want closer ties to the U. Since the adoption last year of a single currency pegged to the U.

It is the U. Cubans know this, and they resent the embargo for making their lives miserable. Cuban Americans, on the other hand, largely supported Trump. Festival of Social Science — Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in.

Gonzalez , Appalachian State University. Author Joseph J.