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Articles on Raul Castro

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With Raul Castro’s resignation as first secretary of the Communist Party, the Castro era is officially over in Cuba. Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

What’s next for Cuba and the United States after Raul Castro’s retirement

Just as Fidel Castro’s 2016 death did not transform US-Cuba ties, his brother Raul’s exit from politics is unlikely to do so. But Cuba itself is changing. Eventually, Havana and Washington will, too.
American and Cuban flags hang from a wall with an old camera hung in between in Havana, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

U.S.-Cuba relations: Will Joe Biden pick up where Barack Obama left off?

Joe Biden could return to the path blazed by Barack Obama on Cuba, when two years of bilateral negotiations helped undo more than five decades of hostility.
Cubans record a street musician’s performance at an internet hotspot along the seafront in Havana, July 14, 2018. Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini

Fidel’s Cuba is long gone

Some Cuban entrepreneurs are so openly anti-communist that they sound like, well, capitalists.
Cubans attend a public discussion to revamp the country’s Cold War-era constitution in Havana, in August 2018. Reuters/Tomas Bravo

Cuba expands rights but rejects radical change in updated constitution

Cuba will not legalize same-sex marriage, as gay activists hoped. But its new constitution adds greater protections for LGBTQ people and for women, and gives Cubans the right to own private property.
Guantanamo Nay detainees sit in a holding area at Camp X-Ray on Jan. 11, 2002. Reuters/Shane T. McCoy/Handout

5 things to know about Guantanamo Bay on its 115th birthday

On Dec. 10, 1903, the US military leased 45 square miles of Cuban territory to build a naval base. How did Guantanamo Bay become an infamous prison for alleged terrorists?
Cuba’s new president, at the National Assembly meeting where he was appointed to succeed Raúl Castro on April 18, 2018. Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

Cuba’s new president: What to expect of Miguel Díaz-Canel

Cuba has a new president — and for the first time in six decades his last name is not Castro. Who is Miguel Díaz-Canel, the man who inherits a Cuba born of Fidel’s 1959 revolution?
Adios Raúl, hola Miguel. smael Francisco/Courtesy of Cubadebate/Handout via Reuters

Cuba’s getting a new president

Miguel Díaz-Canel, a 57-year-old engineer and Communist Party loyalist, is expected to succeed Raúl Castro as president of Cuba. Will change bring prosperity or instability to the Cuban people?
In Cuba, unlike in many Latin American countries, when you see children on the street, they’re not begging; they’re playing. And therein lies Castro’s dilemma: how to reform Cuba’s stagnant economy without losing what’s working? Dan Lundberg/flickr

Castro’s conundrum: finding a post-communist model Cuba can follow

Cuba won’t tolerate the high social costs paid by China and Vietnam in their shift to market capitalism, but its economy desperately needs a reboot.
Can events like Chanel Fashion Week can still happen in Cuba? Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

In Cuba, the post-Fidel era began ten years ago

With its uncharismatic president and liberalising economy, Cuba already looks less like North Korea and more like China or Vietnam.
Cubans were jubilant when president Barack Obama visited the island in March, but economic reforms have not progressed in line with the people’s hopes of change. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Is Cuba’s reform going in reverse?

In spite of rapprochement with the US, Cuban president Raúl Castro has put his reform agenda on hold. Why the delay?
The US and Cuban flags with Havana’s National Capitol Building in the background. EPA/Michael Reynolds

Lessons from Cuba about reclaiming symbols of a painful past

Cuba’s National Capitol Building has been reclaimed as the seat of the National Assembly 54 years after it was abandoned by the new revolutionary government. There are lessons in this for others.

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