Author Archives: Philip Peters
Cuba Goes Digital On the spectrum of telecommunications and information technology development, Cuba is found at both extremes. In terms of the reach of its basic residential telephone network, Cuba ranks near the bottom among Latin American countries. Yet Cuba is incubating a [Read More...]
U.S. Policy Toward Cuba: Voices from the Island Issue BriefIt is tricky to measure Cuban public opinion. Foreigners do not conduct survey research in Cuba based on large random samples, and if this were done on sensitive political topics its results might not be accurate.
Yet visitors [Read More...]
State Enterprise Reform in Cuba State enterprises, the backbone of Cuba’s socialist economy, are being overhauled.
Perfeccionamiento empresarial, the policy of state enterprise reform, has no exact analogy in capitalist economies and is not borrowed from other socialist countries’ models of reform.
Perfeccionamiento empresarial is [Read More...]
Rescuing Old Havana A clash of two sounds greets visitors to La Habana Vieja, Havana’s historic center. One is that of ubiquitous bands in parks, cafes and restaurants, with singers’ voices and percussionists’ rhythms blending into each other, block by block.
The other [Read More...]
Let Yankee Tourists Shower Dollars on Cuba’s Poor In her final press conference as Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright’s message to the Cuban people was succinct. In reference to the aging Fidel Castro she said, “I wish them the actuarial tables.” It was an odd statement on behalf [Read More...]
Let Americans Travel Freely to Cuba Article Published in the Miami HeraldThis New Year’s Eve in Havana, 74-year-old Fidel Castro celebrated his 42nd year in power. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, especially after the Soviet Union’s demise put Cuba on the brink of [Read More...]
A Policy toward Cuba That Serves U.S. Interests Executive Summary
More than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fidel Castro remains in charge in Havana, despising capitalism, taunting the Cuban-American community in Miami, theorizing about the evils of globalization, and keeping up with every imaginable [Read More...]
The Farmer’s Market: Crossroads of Cuba’s New Economy Farmers markets stand out as an exception to the economic rules that govern socialist Cuba. They rely on production incentives, market-based pricing, and a large measure of independent economic activity to help perform the economy’s most vital function: putting food [Read More...]
GOP Leaders: New Coalitions Call for New Cuba Policy Eight prominent Republican leaders in defense, trade, and international policy say U.S. policy toward Cuba would be improved by ending the embargo on food and medicine sales, lifting all restrictions on travel by American citizens, and sunsetting the 1996 Helms-Burton [Read More...]
Cuba’s Economy and the Impact of American Engagement Testimony Before the International Trade CommissionMr. Chairman, members of the Commission:
I appreciate this opportunity to testify and would like to focus on sectors of the Cuban economy that have changed significantly in the past decade, and how economic [Read More...]