Quo Vadis Fidel? Where are you going?

• Author: Kline, Michael
• Position: Fidel Castro

While the facts and observations presented by Prof. Horowitz are for the most part indisputable, the sense he conveys of the impending demise of Cuban-style communism may be premature. He correctly describes the sorry state of the Cuban economy, and concludes that attempts to reform it from within will fail. He is correct in saying that the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) has created an economic cul-de-sac with no easy way out. Facing impossible choices, Prof. Horowitz suggests, tongue-in-cheek, that the Castros and their entourage flee the country as Batista did on January 1, 1959, and leave it to the Cuban people to figure out how to move beyond five decades of Castro's authoritarian rule.

The Castro brothers, however, are not likely to concede defeat. On December 18, 2010, Raul did tell the PCC National Assembly that the country's dire economic situation is threatening the future of the Revolution and that the only recourse to sustain socialism is to institute a limited measure of capitalism. He announced the convening of the PCC's Sixth Congress for April 2011 to discuss and ratify measures to resolve the crisis. Those measures are presented as 291 "decisions" in a 32-page document, "Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the...