40 Chapter 2
with Brazil and the countries of MERCOSUR, its strong relations
with China, Russia, and several Arab and African countries, and its
traditional relations with Spain and the developed capitalist countries
give the island a solid position in the international arena. Even coun-
tries that criticize Cuba rhetorically, such as the European ones, have
important commercial relations and investments in the island.^25
CUBA TODAY: SCENARIOS AND ALTERNATIVES
Background
On November 17, 2005, Fidel Castro, in a speech at the University of
Havana, raised the topic of the reversibility of socialism in Cuba and
the possibility of the Revolution’s defeat because of its own mistakes.
Returning to this subject during his dialogues with the journalist Igna-
cio Ramonet a year later, he said: “This country can be destroyed, this
Revolution can be destroyed if we are not capable of correcting our
own mistakes, if we do not manage to put an end to many vices: very
much theft, many detours and many supply sources of money for the
new rich” (Ramonet, 2006: 567).
The central topics of Raúl Castro’s speeches since he assumed
office have been the following: (1) inviting the Cuban people to for-
mulate proposals for changing what it may be necessary to change in
socialism to improve it; (2) insisting on the need to raise the standard
of living of the Cuban people by increasing production and services,
emphasizing that “the country’s priority will be to satisfy the basic
needs of the population, both material and spiritual;” (3) fulfilling the
strategic aim of “achieving that the salary recovers its value and peo-
ple’s standard of living of everyone is in direct relation to their legally
received income;” (4) emphasizing the urgency of a more productive
agriculture and announcing the distribution of idle state lands in usu-
- Alliances such as MERCOSUR, ALBA, the Association of Caribbean States, and the
Caribbean Community and Common Market, give Cuba ample space in its regional rela-
tions with the Latin American countries.