Oligarchs

New Cuban political elite

December 4, 2011

Eusebio Mujal-León, professor and former chair of the Department of Government at Georgetown University and the director of the Cuba XXI Project, has written an excellent article (published in the Journal of International Affairs’ Fall/Winter ’11 issue on the authoritarian state) analyzing the new Cuban political elite and exploring how power is distributed between the country’s military [...]

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Cuba in 2012

November 30, 2011

I received today The Economist‘s The World in 2012 issue, whereby it forecasts the following for Cuba: Market forces and private enterprise will take on a greater role in the economy, under the strict guidance of Cuba’s Communist Party. It aims to shift 1m workers off state payrolls over the coming years, phase out rationing [...]

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Who will be the new chairman of GAESA?

October 24, 2011

Cuba has been without a defense minister since September 3, when then defense minister Army Corps General Julio Casas Regueiro died of heart failure. ACG Casas was also the founder and chairman of GAESA — Grupo de Administracion Empresarial S.A. (Enterprise Management Group Inc.), the Cuban military’s powerful and lucrative holding company (with more than 300 companies under its ownership) that controls [...]

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More on political risks to watch

January 3, 2011

Reuters gauges the island’s political risks: The cash-strapped government is looking to reduce its role while maintaining control of an economy that will have a bigger private sector and less state spending. It could get long-term help if offshore oil exploration due to begin in 2011 is successful. There are worries that planned job cuts [...]

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Putin generation of military elites

September 30, 2010

Columnist Miguel Cossio discusses in El Nuevo Herald Raúl Castro’s firm steps in consolidating the military elite in power. The recent naming of a colonel to head CIMEX, Cuba’s largest commercial corporation, confirms the ascension of what Cossio calls the Putin generation in Cuba that is not just merely surviving but perpetuating the lineage: This [...]

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Pragmatist more than reformer

September 18, 2010

The Financial Times on Raúl Castro: Either way, the 79-year-old is now more likely to go down in history as the man who tried to save Cuban communism from itself – by turning to capitalism. [...] Raúl Castro lacks Fidel’s vision and drive, but calls a spade a spade, and is known to care for [...]

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