The Impact of the Expansion of the Religious Media in Contemporary Cuba 189
It should be noted that within Cuban civil society there is a broad
spectrum of opinions concerning the government ranging from an
organized opposition that is seeking regime change to those who con-
tinue to support the government. The largest sector is constituted by
unorganized critics of the government’s increasing incapacity to pro-
vide for the basic socioeconomic needs of the populace, the provision
of which the revolutionary state has used as the basis for its legitimacy.
Cuban civil society therefore includes sectors within the state and
within semi-state entities, as well as those that are fully autonomous of
the state. As a consequence, Cuban civil society includes networks that
incorporate individuals and groups that transcend the boundaries of
the state, semi-state, and autonomous sectors. Some of these networks
are rooted in those that have historically existed in Cuba.
These include religiously and ethnically based networks, some of
which overlap, that increasingly serve to represent community inter-
ests.^4 Since the 1980s some religions have used their publications to
introduce alternative discourses to that of the state’s, as well as cri-
tiques of state policies and programs. The major publications have
websites where the number of hits has increased substantially. Believ-
ers, some closely linked to a denomination and others not, have also
turned to blogs to disseminate their views.- The United Nations Development Program ranks Cuba fifty-first among the nations
of the world in terms of the UN’s Human Development Index based on a variety of
socioeconomic indicators including life expectancy (77.7 years/ 2000-05), adult literacy
(99.8%/1995-2005), combined gross enrollment ratio for all levels of education (87.6%/
2005), population using improved water sources (91%/2004), infant mortality rate (6 per
1,000/2005), and maternal mortality rate (45 per 100,000/2000), as well as GDP per
capita ($6,000 PPP/2005) and expenditures on government services especially education
(9.8% GDP/2002-05) and health care (5.5% GDP/2004). United Nations Development
Program, Human Development Report 2007/2008, http://hdr.undp.org/en/. The govern-
ment bases it legitimacy, in large measure on the meeting of basic socioeconomic needs
and in recent years has admitted to problems in terms of food provision, housing, and
public transport. Cuban citizens complain about the limited acquisitive power of the
peso, lack of consumer goods, as well as increasing problems in the public health system
among other issues. Statistics relating to Cuba have long been subject to debate. For a
discussion of some of the issues involved see Carmelo Mesa-Lago & Jorge F. Perez-
Lopez, Cuba’s Aborted Reform: Socioeconomic Effects, International Comparisons, and Transition
Policies (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005).