La estrategia económica cubana: medio siglo de socialismo

Abstract

The guidelines for the strategy of economic and social development of Cuba, as of 1959, had been outlined from 1953 in the historical document of Fidel Castro, known as « The History will Absolve Me », in which were identified the main problems to eradicate, and these objectives became the essence of the economic and social policies of the country, beginning therefore a period of great transformations and changes. Its immediate goal was to deconstruct the bases of the previous economy. For that reason, the economic politics of the Cuban government were concentrated in transforming the received inheritance. The attempt to transform the economic field was always linked to emergencies and strategies of political order. These transformations included different main stages in the conformation and implementation of those development strategies. This article intends to show that the Cuban economy in this half century, has been characterized by different economic cycles, as much of growth as of recession, and in many cases related to the changes in Cuba’s international economic insertion or to the modifications of that insertion. In general the obtained economic results have not been the ones hoped nor wished by the Cubans.

Keywords

• development
• centralization
• economic policy
• equity