Introduction: The Approach
Helen Yaffe has written an informed and insightful study of Cuba’s current political and economic situation. That is, from the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s to the time of publication in 2020.
Her approach includes drawing from scores of interviews she conducted, mostly between 2010 and 2019. (279) She interviewed Cuban officials, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens living in Cuba so that she could understand and explain how these Cubans understood their own political and economic conditions. She also marshals a great deal of quantitative data which re-enforces and further illuminates how these Cubans saw themselves and their conditions.
Political scientists will note that Yaffe doesn’t organize her study around the concept of the political system. In part, this is because her emphasis is more on the economic development of Cuba, its challenges, successes, and persistent needs, rather than the policy making process. However, her study can be quite illuminating for the political science mode of interpretation.
The System’s Environment
Although Yaffe does not analyze Cuba as a political system operating in an environment, her discussion draws attention to two prominent dimensions of that environment – the domestic economy and the island’s international relations.
As to its economic environment, Cuba entered what Fidel Castro called a “Special Period” after the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. That is when the Soviet state collapsed, and consequently stopped its aid and most commerce with the island. After that, Cuba’s “GDP fell 35%.” 41 Activity in crucial economic sectors dropped by huge amounts, manufacturing 90%, over all imports over 70%, exports 60%, delivery of oil from Russia ceased, exports of sugar all but stopped, and consumer spending fell by half. In other words, the Soviet withdrawal threw the Cuban economy into a depression.
To make matters worse for the small island of about 12M people, the United States has been obsessed with increasing Cuba’s economic pain by enacting a series of laws which in various ways restrict trade with Cuba. Laws specifically targeting trade with Cuba stretch back at least to the Eisenhower administration ban on arms sales to the Bautista regime, prior to the 1959 Revolution.
These laws increased after the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s. The US President has also been given authority to enact trade restrictions by executive order.
Once the Special Period began, the US Congress, and President Clinton, passed several new laws “to strengthen the blockade, and … to prevent trade and financial relations between Cuba and the rest of the world.” 41 (Yaffe, following the Cuban practice, uses the term “blockade,” while the US uses the term “embargo.”)
Thus, Yaffe’s discussion compels the conclusion that the most prominent feature of the Cuban political system environment today is the hostile and unrelenting efforts by the US to undermine the ability of the Cuban regime to govern, and thereby destroy its socialist system. (n16 p 41, 176)
No other country in the world, large or small, must carry a burden like that which the United States imposes on the Cuban political system. For instance, ships that sail to Cuba and dock in one of its ports are forbidden by US law from docking in any American port for 6 months thereafter.
The ideal for cost efficient trade would be for a large cargo ship to dock in a Cuban port, unload or load its shipment, and then go on to a US port where much larger amounts could be loaded or unloaded. Rarely can a freighter make a profitable journey across the sea to the tiny island of Cuba alone. But that is what US law forces shippers to do. Of course, since the trip to Cuba alone is unlikely to be profitable, it is seldom undertaken.
Consequently, Cuba must do without many of the products and supplies it needs. For this reason, such items as hammers, nails, concrete, paint, and other materials needed to maintain its infrastructure, buildings, and homes are always in short supply. Often regarded as “quaint,” nearly half the cars in Cuba are American vehicles from the 1950s, or old Soviet era Ladas. Shipping new cars to Cuba from any country would risk punitive sanctions from the US government, so that is rarely done.
Banks that do business with Cuba also risk punitive sanctions. So capital for business start-ups, loans for business improvements or expansions, and money to borrow for big purchases like cars or homes, are not available to the Cuban people from international banks. This, of course, has a crippling effect on commerce. Yaffe cites estimates that between 1960 and 1990, the US blockade costs Cuba $3B p/yr, and during the Special Period this increased to $4.4B a year. (n15 p287, n29 p308)
The way Cuba responded to their dual burden of economic depression and US blockade says a lot about their character as a people, and commitment to socialist values.
The Response to the Special Period
Cubans tightened their belt, so to speak, and, under Fidel Castro’s charismatic leadership, found ways to share what they had with their neighbors. The government continued to use its scarce resources to provide free education from kindergarten through graduate and professional school for all its people. All medical care continued to be, and remains, free. Indeed, Cuba puts as much of its resources as it can into its medical services industry. By 2005, Cuba had trained so many of its own doctors that it had the highest doctor-person ratio “in the world.” 152
Yaffe has a chapter showing that, although the blockade keeps out many types of high-tech scientific equipment, in some areas of bio-medical research, Cuba leads the world. One example is in the healing and prevention of tropical diseases.
In another chapter, Yaffe shows how Cuba has become a major exporter of medical services. Yaffe discusses a long list of nations in Africa, South and Central America, and other countries where Cuban doctors and medical staff have rushed to assist in combating health crises and injuries from natural disasters. But the Cubans not only provide such help, they stay and train locals how to carry on the needed treatments and how to prevent further harms. “By 2015, Cuba had trained over 13,000 people to deal with Ebola in 28 African countries, plus 68,000 people in Latin America and 628 in the Caribbean.” 149
They cared for victims of the 1986 Chernobyl melt down, in Ukraine, for over twenty years following the disaster. First, Cuba sent specialists to Ukraine to assess the needs of the people in the area. The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a drop in the available medical services for the affected people. In Cuba, they set up the “Children of Chernobyl camp.” A common ailment was thyroid cancer, from which 1000s of children suffered after drinking contaminated water. (157) Cuban medical personnel brought many of these children to the camp in Cuba, and treated them without charge to their families. Although the Ukrainian government promised to reimburse Cuba for at least some of its expenses, that hasn’t happened. (158)
Indeed, Cuba’s primary export is medical services. They do this for free in poor countries, and they charge on a sliding scale in countries that can afford it. (174)
Cuba has educated 1000s of doctors and other medical personnel, both domestic and foreign.
Even though its medical schools lack the kind of modern medical equipment so-called First World nations take for granted, it has a reputation for high standards of training. Students from poor countries are accepted without charge. “In 1999, the Cubans established the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), probably the world’s largest medical school.” 153 “By 2019, 29,000 doctors from 105 countries had graduated.” 159 Ironically, as the blockade dragged on, the US Congress’s Black Caucus requested that Cuba take poor students from the US! “By 2017, 170 students from the United States had graduated.” 159
These policies were initiated by Fidel Castro. They were carried on after he became ill, in 2006, by his brother Raul Castro, and are currently continued by Miguel Diaz-Canel, who was elected president in April 2018. (1-2, 250)
Political Structure and Participation
While Yaffe does not discuss the operation of the Cuban political system in the terms of inputs and outputs, feedback, etc., she does show how the system provides for citizen input, and how
Cuban leadership even seeks such input. Given the years of governing experience Cuba had had following the 1959 Revolution, politically attentive and involved Cubans decided that a new constitution ought to be enacted to formalize the institutions that would best serve the country’s continuing self-realization.
Raul Castro initiated the process by forming a drafting commission in 2013. The commission was to consider the needs and input of all interests and sectors of the society and economy. Cuba’s main legislative body, the National Assembly of People’s Power, received and debated a suggested final draft in July of 2018. Then the version it approved “was distributed throughout the island for two months of grassroots debates open to everyone in Cuba.” 250 Yaffe notes that “significant changes were made to the draft document following the nationwide debate.” 251
The final version was presented to the people as a referendum for an up or down vote in February 2019. “It was approved by nearly 87% of voters, with a turnout of over 84%.” 253
The Preamble declared, among other things, that Cuba is a “Socialist Republic,” and would “never [return] to capitalism as a regime sustained by the exploitation of man by man.” 251 Gender equality is guaranteed. (252) (Cuba approved same sex marriage in September 2022.)
Each of the 15 provinces has its own government, including a Governor and Provincial Council. Only the delegates to the Municipal Assembly are directly elected by the local people. Municipal elections are preceded by a candidate nominating process held about one month prior to the elections. Although the law does not require Cubans to vote, participation in the nomination and election process is regularly very high, with a turnout of from 70% to 90%.
Informal neighborhood groups encourage residents to stay informed and participate. One responsibility of the Municipal Assembly is to elect members of the National Assembly. Another is to approve the President’s nomination of Provincial Governors. All elections take place by secret ballot. The voting age is 16. The term for all Assembly members is 5 years.
The Communist Party is the only political party allowed in Cuba. But it is not an isolated dictatorial organization. Prior to any Party Congress much public input about public policy is sought and considered. A major change of Party policy took place in 2011, when the 6th Party Congress was held. For several months prior to then, a general policy statement was distributed to the public for debate and input. All Cubans, not just Party members, participated in the process. The process produced “780,000 distinct recommendations.” 214 Once approved by the Congress, the document, called the “Guidelines,” were sent to the National Assembly for a final ratification. (214) Thus, the people participated in the final articulation of Party policy.
The high rates of public participation by the people in Cuba’s governing process suggest a high degree of consent to and support of both Party and government. [1]
Socialist Soul Searching
Yaffe’s interviews with informed, concerned Cubans suggests that the country has been engaged in a process of self-definition at least since the time when Raul Castro held the leadership position. One primary concern is how to square the acknowledged need for economic practices drawn from “capitalist” theory with the ideals of “socialism.” There is no doubt that having the state completely control the means of production and distribution with no privately owned property and no rewards for individual achievements is unworkable. And having unbridled free enterprise is, whether workable or not, unacceptable. Thus, the requirements of the actual practice of governing an economy seem to contradict any form of conceptual purity.
Devising some mix of state provided social welfare, and economic control, with selected free enterprise is a key challenge to the governance of Cuba. In other words, how can the entrepreneurial spirit of the Cuban people be freed while preserving socialism?
Although Yaffe doesn’t mention this, the Chinese are also concerned about this challenge. They refer to their system as “market socialism.” Their policy is to allow significant freedom to markets, while using government power to achieve socialist aims. One of the most important guiding principles of the Chinese Communist Party is its policy of “common prosperity.” That includes maintaining their vital state owned enterprises, such as public utilities, health care, education, defense, etc., while using various methods, including taxation, to minimize wealth inequality. One lesson China has learned from the United States is that capitalist “free enterprise,” in practice, means the wealthiest special interests come to dominate government policy-making. These capitalists are only concerned with their own prosperity, and not with any form of “common prosperity.” Thus, the Chinese make a point of keeping the superrich special interests out of the top echelons of the policy-making process. [2]
Cuba, under Diaz-Canel, is still trying to find its own way with these issues.
Today’s Relations with the USA
While the US blockade has hobbled Cuba since the 1960s, President Obama announced in December 2014 that his administration would begin to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Then, “in March 2016, Obama became the first US president since 1929 to visit the island.” 199 A series of executive orders eased some of the effects of past blockade harms.
Unhappily, Donald Trump came into office in 2017. His series of executive orders undid what Obama had done, and President Trump renewed the prior hostility towards Cuba and tightened the vice the US has Cuba trapped in. (256f) Yaffe states that Trump’s policy towards Cuba was meant to appease Mario Rubio and the wealthy exiles in Florida who supported Rubio. National Security Advisor, John Bolton, and Trump’s second Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, went after Cuba with a vengeance. Remittances and travel, including by cruises and by private boats and planes, were constrained. Anti-Cuban propaganda was stepped up. Bolton referred to Cuban medical personnel in Venezuela as “troops” bent on supporting Maduro by force, while engaging in “human trafficking” (as by taking sick children back to Cuba for specialist treatment). (172) [3]
The 1996 Helms-Burton Act provision that allowed Cuban exiles to use US courts to sue US businesses, accused of benefiting from the Cuban Revolution, was activated for the first time. Many US companies are even now wary of doing business in Cuba because the law is unclear about what liabilities they can incur. The EU and Canada denounced this policy “as a violation of international law,” and declared that no judgment coming out of such suits would be honored. (265)
Every year since the early 1990s Cuba has introduced a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly denouncing the US blockade and calling for its termination, and each time a majority vote has approved it. In 2022 the vote was 185 in favor. As usual, only the United States, under Biden, and Israel voted to oppose. Brazil and Ukraine abstained. This was the 30th time the United Nations has voted to end the embargo, but the resolution is non-binding. [4]
Although Trump’s tightening of the blockade reduced income for Cuba, and hurt the Cuban people, the government of Diaz-Canel responded by enacting a pay raise for its employees and pensioners. (266) Price controls were introduced so that scarcity caused by the US would not make goods and services more expensive. (267)
Conclusion: Cuba’s Prospects
In concluding Yaffe states frankly that “There is no attempt here to predict the future.” 269 However, as she points out, the Cuban government and people have shown remarkable commitment to preserve their socialist system even under the cruelties of the United States. In her view, then, the tiny island can take whatever the giant US dishes out, and survive.
However, two years after this book came out, Diaz-Canel travelled to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping. During their November 2022 meeting they signed several agreements which will include Cuba as a partner in China’s “Belt and Road Initiative.” China will invest in new construction projects in Cuba, such as for roads and ports. Cuba will sell China metals and agricultural products, as well as share its expertise in health related fields.
China is one of the few countries in the world that can disregard the US blockade. Shipping companies, banks, and businesses without assets in the US can do business with Cuba and not have to worry about punitive sanctions.
Xi Jinping also offered a donation of $100 million to help Cuba meet urgent basic needs to alleviate the suffering under the US blockade. [5] If Cuba can make itself an indispensable trading partner with China, the regular business could become the basis for raising the quality of material life that the island currently needs.
Also, Cuba’s foreign trade is diversifying. It trades with numerous Central and South American countries, as well as with countries in Africa, and with Russia. US restrictions are increasingly being disregarded.
US policy for Cuba is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. President Joe Biden has done little, beyond talk, to reverse Trump’s reversals of Obama’s efforts to act humanely. The so-called “Miami exiles” and their allies are more than ever a major power in the Republican Party. Democratic Party elites appear to feel little pressure to fight for a policy of treating Cuba humanely. The American public seems to be uninformed about its government’s blockade and the effects it has on their fellow human beings in Cuba.
But that could change if more Americans would read this very informative book.
William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
@InterpretivePo1
PS
Rome may be remembered always for its conquests and empire, but, IMHO, Cuba may be remembered as a Moral Model for the human species.
Notes
[1] Some of the details about the governing process that were not mentioned by Yaffe were taken from Peter Roman’s 2003 book, People's Power: Cuba's Experience with Representative Government.
[2] For further discussion of China see the several related blog posts herein.
[3] In September 2017, Trump recalled 60% of the US diplomatic staff in Havana after several staff members, including CIA operatives, came down with a mysterious illness, later called “Havana Syndrome.” Some Canadian diplomatic staff reported similar symptoms, including headaches, nausea, etc. While the US media played up the false story of a “sonic attack” by Cuban agents, few gave equal time to later reporting that investigations found the symptoms to be an allergic reaction among US and Canadian personnel to fumigation chemicals groundskeepers used for pest control. (257) (Yaffe doesn’t remark on that irony.)
[4] “Cuba and U.S. spar over U.N. resolution calling to end embargo.” November 3, 2022
The Reuters story also reports that, while keeping many embargo laws in effect, “Biden has eased some sanctions on communist-run Cuba implemented by his predecessor, Donald Trump, loosening tough U.S. restrictions around remittances, flights, tourism, and migration.”
[5] “Cuba wins China debt relief, new funds.” Reuters. Marc Frank. November 27, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-wins-china-debt-relief-new-funds-2022-11-27/
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