Castro continues economic reforms - on his terms
HAVANA --Contemplating the afterlife, Fidel Castro took a moment to consider the fate of his old nemesis Mikhail Gorbachev, whose program of economic and political openness ended in the collapse of the Soviet Union and catastrophic misery for its ally here.
"I think he is someone who will spend the rest of time in limbo," Castro said over evening cocktails last week inside the Palace of the Revolution. "He will not go to hell. But I don't think he will get a visa to heaven."
As for himself, Castro still appears to believe, as he said early in his political career, that history will absolve him. But events have moved in mysterious ways. Cuba's isolation has forced him to initiate tightly controlled economic reforms that, while more timid than those undertaken by Gorbachev, have altered life for millions on the island.
In an interview with the Globe, Castro said Cuba's market reforms were ''irreversible." But he acknowledged that they have created individual ''privilege" contrary to the principles of his 37-year-old revolution. In a process that has been halting and sometimes contradictory, Castro has invited capitalism into the country while still proclaiming, at least in theory, that Cubans must choose between "Socialism or Death."
"Besides the things that are sacred to us, we are opening up" the economy, he said. "But all this is under the control of the state. It's not that we are handing over the country to foreign capital, nor are we going to
put the country up for sale. We aren't thinking of selling the country. And the role of the state will remain important."
Castro said that during the last year the reforms have begun to show results. After Cuba's gross domestic product fell by 35 percent between 1989 and 1994, contributing to civil unrest and raising doubts about the regime's stability, officials say the economy grew by 2.5 percent last year, and is expected to grow by another 5 percent in 1996.
"We have managed to stop the freefall," Castro boasted in the late night interview, which followed a private meeting with Rep. J. Joseph Moakley, Democrat of South Boston, who had led a delegation from New England to Havana. Wearing a tailored green military uniform, Castro, 69, looked his age, but he appeared fit and engaged, answering some questions with the verbal thunderstorms that have simultaneously enthralled and worn down generations of listeners.
Gently tapping the chest of an interviewer with the back of his hand for emphasis, he insisted that Cuba has embarked on an ordered, gradual path toward economic liberalization.
Increased political liberty is not part of the package, however. Castro shows no signs of allowing any market policies to lead to the creation of opposition political parties or freedom of expression. And he denied the policy changes were designed to improve Cuba's relationship with the United States. Instead, he said, Cuba would give no ground to forestall efforts in Congress to tighten the 33-year-old US trade embargo.
"We have done many things because they were things we thought we should do, not because we thought they would improve relations," he said. "We have had an opening in many areas, and we haven't done that with a fixed view of ending the embargo. We feel that we need to do it. But our principles we are not going to negotiate. And that makes things difficult."
Speaking of the United States, he said: "The more they squeeze us, the more efficient we are going to become."
The government has taken dramatic steps recently to stimulate the economy. Foreign investors from 55 countries, who have poured $2.1 billion into Cuba over the past five years, can now hold 100 percent stakes in companies. More than 200,000 Cubans have been permitted to become self- employed. Workers in some state industries are awarded hard-currency bonuses, while thousands of others have been laid off from unproductive enterprises.
In perhaps the most visible change, the US dollar has become the country's dominant currency, used by Cubans to purchase items ranging from refrigerators to food. Last month the government estimated that between 40 percent to 50 percent of Cubans have direct access to dollars sent by relatives in the United States or through legal or black market transactions with foreigners.
Castro said Cuba's ability to recover from its economic crisis, in which it lost 85 percent of its foreign markets with the collapse of the European communist bloc, reflected support for the regime. He said the reforms would deepen that commitment. "We wouldn't have been able to do that without the consensus of the people; and nobody can do that through force," he said.
But many outside the government say the measures have yet to alleviate the daily hardships faced by most Cubans. In his New Year's homily, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, said: "Although there have been some very modest economic advances and predictions of continued growth, the church, in our daily service to Catholics and all the people, can attest to the extensive shortage of essential goods, including medicine and food, the shortage of money, and, as a result, poverty borne with dignity by most Cubans, but not without suffering and growing impatience."
Some critics are more blunt. They say that changes have made some problems even worse, creating a two-tier economy in which those with US
dollars prosper while others struggle to meet their basic needs. Havana's prostitutes, who thrive on Cuba's bustling tourist trade, can earn much more than a surgeon employed by the country's health care system.
Castro said he was troubled by such disparities. He suggested that they would remain unresolved until the government could achieve a more stable monetary policy and the Cuban peso could compete in value with the dollar.
"It's clear that all these openings bring differences," he said. "We know that. We prefer more equality. We prefer more justice."
But he defended his overall approach. "We did not want to apply policies of a 'shock,' like those that have occurred in many countries of Latin America, that pushed hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, without protection," he said. "We have not closed a single school, not one hospital, not one day care center, not a single home for the elderly."
Some Cubans believe that Castro, who during the last four months has visited South America, Europe, China and Vietnam, and attended the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in New York, is quietly assimilating information as he plots Cuba's economic and political future. Castro indicated that he sees lessons for Cuba in China, which has opened its economy while maintaining tight control over its political system, but added: "We can't do everything that they are doing. Some people want us to do in three years what the Chinese have done in 15."
"China has not done it in a disorderly way," he said. "What Gorbachev did destroyed the whole history of his country. But China has not destroyed the history of their country. They have not destroyed the government. They have not destroyed the party. They have been wise."
What remains unclear is how far Castro is willing to go. It is still illegal for Cubans to employ someone who is not a family member. And a tax aimed at self-employed workers, due to take effect this year, is seen by many entrepreneurs as a government attempt to stifle private enterprise.
For those advocating a more pluralistic society and greater respect for human rights, political change is overdue. But Castro continues to be the focal point of the debate over whether he should be part of a democratic transition in Cuba, should one ever come.
Even many internal critics cannot envision a future without him: "Change in Cuba is inevitable, on that I have no doubt," said Elizardo Sanchez, the island's most prominent dissident. "But the doubts come when we think about how: violently or nonviolently. If he is included in the transition, it will be nonviolent. If not, there will be a vacuum of power, chaos and civil war. People will become desperate and they will want to escape. Where will they go? Think of hundreds of thousands of people headed to South Florida."
For now, Castro does not seem interested in looking for a fight. When Miami-based planes crossed into Cuban airspace twice this month and dropped leaflets calling for Cubans to take to the streets, the government did nothing. Castro said only: "We have all the patience necessary, but there are limits to our patience."
As he bade farewell to Moakley's delegation, Castro said: "We cannot be accused of being voluntary neighbors. It was nature that put us here, it was God. It was God who decided that we would be neighbors. What we know is that we cannot move away, so we have to stay here and get used to it. We have to be friends."
