By Phillip Peters, Lexington Institute, May 22, 2012
2006
July – On July 31,
2006, Fidel Castro temporarily delegates power, and Raul Castro takes over
provisionally as President of the Council of State and head of the Cuban
Communist Party.
2007
May – Private taxi
drivers notice that police are no longer stopping them to check to see if they
are licensed.
July – Raul Castro’s
first major speech as acting President gives a glimpse of his reform ideas,
calling for “structural changes and changes of concepts” and placing a priority
on agriculture. He quotes his brother Fidel: “Revolution is a sense of
the historical moment, it is to change all that must be changed.”
December – The
under-the-table pay supplements that foreign companies have long provided in
hard currency to Cuban workers are legalized. Companies must keep records
of such payments and the workers must pay income tax on them.
2008
February – Raul
Castro is elected as Cuba’s chief executive, President of the Council of State,
a post he held provisionally since 2006.
March – Following
Raul Castro’s promise to remove “unnecessary prohibitions” that affect citizens’
lives, a series of consumer restrictions are lifted. Computers and DVD
players are permitted for sale to the public, Cubans are permitted to have cell
phone accounts in their own name (previously, they typically enlisted a foreign
visitor to open an account in the visitor’s name), and Cubans are permitted to
stay in tourist hotels and to rent cars previously available to tourists only.
April – Raul Castro
announces that the Council of State commuted death sentences of “a group of
convicts” and left them with 30-year or life sentences. This action left
only three inmates on death row, all convicted of terrorism-related charges. Two
of these three, both citizens of El Salvador, had their death sentences
commuted by the Supreme Court in 2010; the court changed their sentences to
30-year jail terms.
July – A program of
agricultural land grants that had been under way for months was formalized in
Decree-Law 259, providing for the distribution of idle state lands to
individual farmers and cooperatives. Grants are made in usufruct in
ten-year terms for individuals and 25-year terms for cooperatives.
July – The
transportation ministry announces that it will soon begin granting new licenses
for private taxis.
August – A new
labor policy removes ceilings on individual earnings in the state sector and
directs state sector employers to develop sliding pay scales that reward
productive workers with higher pay.
2009
January –
Regulations are published to enable licensing of new private taxis, and their
numbers double within six months.
April – Following
an announcement in December 2008 that the government was conducting “experiments…to
lighten the state’s burden in the provision of some services,” the government
begins turning over small barber and beauty shops to their workers, who pay
rent and utilities and otherwise run the shops as their own business.
June – A new decree
permits Cubans to hold more than one job, except for persons holding high-level
jobs, teachers, and health sector personnel.
August – Raul
Castro tells the National Assembly that Cuba might have to do without some “beneficial
and even laudable activities” that generate spending that “simply is not
sustainable.” He confirms the gradual closure of public boarding schools
that combine study and farm work, which generations of Cubans attended starting
as early as seventh grade. The Catholic church applauds it as a “positive
step” that will keep families together.
August – The Office
of the Comptroller is established, headed by Gladys Bejerano, to strengthen
auditing inside state entities. The office goes on to figure in several
investigations of corruption involving arrests of both Cuban and foreign
businessmen.
September – Granma
reports that as part of efforts to achieve “economic rationality,” the
government will begin the process of closing 24,700 workplace cafeterias,
beginning in four ministries in Havana. Affected workers will receive
15-peso daily stipends. The article notes that the cafeterias operate at
an annual cost of $350 million, and some of their inventories find their way to
the black market.
October – A signed
editorial in Granma argues that the monthly household food ration book should
be replaced by a system of subsidies that go only to the needy.
2010
May – A meeting
between Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega begins a process, also involving
the government of Spain, whereby 166 political prisoners would be released
from jail, including the 52 remaining from the 75 arrested in the spring of
2003. Of those released, twelve decided to remain in Cuba and the rest
accepted offers to go to Spain with family members.
August –To
encourage outside investment in the tourism sector, the maximum term for land
leases to foreign companies is extended from 50 to 99 years, a move welcomed by
developers of prospective golf course/real estate projects.
September – A
statement by the Cuban labor union federation announces that half a million
state sector workers will be laid off by April 2011, with a “parallel increase
in the non-state sector.”
October –
Regulations affecting small private entrepreneurship, which Raul Castro calls “one
more employment option” for workers that will no longer be working in the state
sector, are substantially liberalized. Licensing offices, which for years
had approved very few applications, assist applicants and generally grant
licenses within a week. A new tax system for entrepreneurs is instituted.
State newspapers, radio, and television explain requirements and
procedures. In the first month, 29,000 new entrepreneurs are licensed.
October – A signed
editorial in Granma likens the government’s finances to those of a family
confronting the truth that “you can’t spend more than you bring in,” and points
out the need for spending cuts, including in social benefits. It notes
that education and health care, both free to the public, account for 47 percent
of the government’s spending.
October – A news
article in Granma reports on the “rationalization” of health care delivery in
Havana through consolidation of clinics and specialized services, removing them
from areas of low usage, and through reduction of personnel.
November – The “Lineamientos,”
the economic and social policy guidelines that are the basis for the reform
process in each sector, are published in draft form and subjected to nationwide
discussion.
December – Finance
Minister Lina Pedraza, addressing the National Assembly, anticipates that 1.8
million workers will join the “non-state” sector by 2015 and describes the
elements of a new tax policy under discussion: sales taxes, taxation of private
farmers’ income, and a tax on people who are able to work and do not work, in
order that they contribute to the cost of social services.
2011
February – State
media announce that sugar is being phased out of the monthly household ration
book, leaving consumers to buy sugar in state stores at eight pesos per pound
(about $0.32, half the U.S. retail price), rather than at the ration book’s
deeply subsidized price. Similar announcements have been made regarding
other products, as the ration book is slated for eventual elimination.
March – The plan to
lay off a half-million workers by April 2011 is shelved; layoffs proceed but at
a slower pace.
April – The
newspaper Juventud Rebelde lists agenda items for a January 2012 national conference
of the Communist Party, including “to plan the work of the Party, leaving
behind prejudices toward the non-state sector of the economy.”
April – The
Communist Party Congress elects Raul Castro to its top position, First
Secretary, a post he held provisionally since 2006.
May – Following
approval by the Communist Party Congress, the “Lineamientos,” the economic and
social policy guidelines that are the basis for the reform process in each
sector, are published in final form.
May – To help
entrepreneurs get on their feet and to spur job creation, certain taxes and
regulations affecting entrepreneurs are eased.
July – The Ministry
of Education laid off 3,415 employees in the just-concluded academic year,
relocated 3,667, and was moving to lay off 6,877 more.
October – Car sales
are legalized. Previously, Cubans could only sell pre-1959 cars.
November – The
Ministry of Sugar is dissolved and replaced by AZCUBA, an entity that will
manage business units that previously belonged to the ministry.
November – A new
decree permits Cubans and foreigners legally residing in Cuba to buy and sell
residential real estate, with a limit of one residence and one vacation home. The
measure streamlines the process of real estate transfers and encourages owners
to update their property titles.
December – The
government releases 2,900 prisoners serving sentences for non-political
offenses.
December – Cuban
banks begin to offer loans to entrepreneurs, small farm producers, and persons
needing funds to fix up their homes. Cuban media promote and explain the
new credits.
December – New
regulations allow all agricultural producers to sell directly to hotels and
restaurants in the tourism sector. Previously, tourism businesses could
only buy from a state enterprise. A Granma article explains that the idea
is to reduce spoilage, “to simplify the links between the primary producer and
final consumer,” and to allow tourism installations to “take better advantage
of the potential of all the forms of production at the local level.”
December – At a
National Assembly session, officials set a goal for 23,000 new homes to be
built by Cubans’ “own effort” in 2012. To facilitate do-it-yourself
construction and repair, government retail stores are beginning to supply
building materials, and consumers no longer need a government agency’s
permission to buy them. State media criticize the stores for moving too
slowly; officials say only half the planned number of construction supplies
showed up on store shelves in 2011. In January 2012, profits from these
sales were being used to provide low-income home repair grants, and Cuban media
report that more than 200 grants were made in the first month.
2012
January – The
Ministry of Public Health announces that its outlays were 7.7 percent less in
2011 than in 2010.
January – The Scarabeo
9, a moveable drilling platform for offshore oil exploration, arrives in Cuba
and begins exploration north of Havana, 28 miles from U.S. waters. The
exploration, conducted by a consortium led by the Spanish oil company Repsol in
conjunction with the Cuban oil company Cupet, gives rise to hopes that Cuba
could become self-sufficient in energy.
March – Cuban media
report on a Council of Ministers meeting that approved pilot projects for the
creation of private cooperatives in three provinces in sectors other than
agriculture.
April – Cuban labor
federation official Raymundo Navarro, in an interview with the EFE news agency,
says that state payrolls have been reduced by 140,000 in 2011 and will be
reduced by a further 110,000 in 2012; the goal is to reach a 500,000 reduction
by 2015. The original goal, announced in September 2010, was to reach the
500,000 mark by April 2010.
April – The number
of Cubans working in the entrepreneurial sector, including both entrepreneurs
and employees, reached 371, 200, an increase of 230,000 since October 2010.
April – Granma reported
that in the first three months of 2012 there were 2,730 sales and 10,660
donations of homes, and 8,390 sales and 6,780 donations of cars.
May
– Repsol concludes its exploration and announces that it found no oil. The
exploration rig will be passed to other companies, starting with Malaysia’s
Petronas, to continue exploration in Cuba’s Gulf waters.
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