Castro brothers

Cuba’s ranking in EIU’s Democracy Index

December 16, 2011

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) just released its report Democracy Index 2011: Democracy Under Stress. Per the report: “The index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories—this covers almost the entire population of the world and the vast majority of the world’s independent states (micro states are [...]

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Legalizing clandestine private enterprise

November 11, 2010

The Economist on the latest “reform” in Cuba: So are the Castro brothers, in the twilight of their lives, preparing to lead Cuba towards a mixed economy, similar to that of China? Or are these reforms just short-term, reversible measures, designed to mitigate an acute shortage of cash? The government’s recently published list of 178 [...]

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No lifeline to a dying regime

September 3, 2010

Stephen Johnson of Shadow Government: Notes from the Loyal Opposition (a blog about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, hosted by Foreign Policy magazine) proffers not extending a life safer to Cuba’s moribund regime: Now facing a cash crunch on the heels of a disastrous sugar harvest, brother Raúl is consulting Fidel’s old playbook — [...]

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Tactics of survival

July 21, 2010

Alvaro Vargas Llosa on the Castro brothers as masterful tacticians: Other releases have lifted people’s hopes in the past. In 1969-70, about 1,300 prisoners were deported. In 1979, after a controversial negotiation with some exiles, 3,600 opponents were set free – and expelled. In 1998, Pope John Paul II’s visit was followed by the release of [...]

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Sending a sell signal

July 12, 2010

The Financial Times’ Beyond Brics Blog on the Castro brothers hedging their geo-strategic bets on Venezuela’s economic risks: The faceless capitalists of Wall Street have long considered Venezuela a “sell” – the oil producing country’s foreign currency bonds are considered almost twice as risky as Greece’s. But might even Cuba’s revolutionary gerontocracy now believe the [...]

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Brazil and the despots

June 14, 2010

Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal details Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s trend toward defending despots: The repressive Iranian government is only the latest example. There is also Lula’s unconditional support for Cuba’s dictatorship and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. In February, Cuba allowed political dissident Orlando Zapata to starve to death the same week [...]

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