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.
A group of young intellectuals and artists demonstrates at the doors of the Ministry of Culture during a protest in Havana on Nov. 27.
Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images
Talks with the government ended with accusations that the dissenting artists were ‘paid by North American agencies’ – an age-old way to discredit dissent in Cuba. But these protests are homegrown.
Cuban medicine is now called upon both to protect the island’s population from Covid-19 and to help various foreign countries, including Italy and France.
Cubans record a street musician’s performance at an internet hotspot along the seafront in Havana, July 14, 2018.
Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini
For one, you can’t break an economy that’s already broken.
Airlines that fly into Cuba’s main airport could now be sued for profiting off of property confiscated during the country’s 1959 revolution.
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File
The Trump administration has declared the most severe new sanctions against Cuba since President John F. Kennedy imposed an economic embargo banning all trade with the communist island in 1962.
Cubans attend a public discussion to revamp the country’s Cold War-era constitution in Havana, in August 2018.
Reuters/Tomas Bravo
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.
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 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?
The Spanish hotel chain Meliá has big plans for Cuba. So did the Trump Organization, up until its CEO was elected president of the United States.
Desmond Boylan/Reuters
As president, Donald Trump has taken a harsh stance toward Cuba. But his real estate company has tried twice to open Trump properties on the Communist island, allegedly even skirting the law to do so.
Fidel Castro was no fan of his brother’s plans to normalize relations with the US or open the economy. Does his death suggest those plans might accelerate?
All of the world’s struggling masses owe the late Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro an enormous debt for consistently and fearlessly articulating the debilitating aspect of life under under capitalism.
The new president-elect delivered some mixed messages during the campaign.
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
Cuba has been reforming parts of its economy since 2008. Will the thaw in relations with its Cold War adversary and Obama’s visit accelerate those changes?
Penn State’s Nittany Lions became simply ‘USA’ during its games against Havana’s famed Industriales and other teams.
Kelsie Netzer/John Curley Center
John Kerry will raise the flag over the American Embassy in Cuba on Friday. That moment is possible thanks to work Jimmy Carter began four decades ago.
NRF Accredited & Senior Researcher; Lead Coordinator of the South-South Educational Collaboration & Knowlede Interchange Initiative, Cape Peninsula University of Technology