Change in Cuba “inevitable”, says acclaimed blogger

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuban dissident blogger Yoani  Sanchez says the island is headed for “inevitable” change since  former leader Fidel Castro retired, and Cubans have become more  outspoken than ever in their criticism of the government.

“Change is coming, it’s as inevitable as rain in the summer  and cold in the winter,” Sanchez told Reuters in an interview.

She said President Raul Castro, who took over from his  ailing elder brother last year, lacks Fidel’s persuasive  charisma and faces a big leadership test as the global economic  squeeze piled fresh daily hardships on Cubans.

Sanchez, whose “Generacion Y” blog is critical of Cuba’s  one-party communist government and is widely read abroad, has  won international acclaim. She was selected by Time Magazine as  one of the world’s most influential people in 2008.

But her Cuban readership is limited because Internet access  is closely monitored and restricted on the island. Cuban  authorities, who often condemn internal critics as U.S.-backed  traitors, have accused her of being a “professional dissident”  at the service of “anti-Cuban propagandistic machinery.”

In the year of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban  Revolution, expectations for change have grown in the Caribbean  nation following Fidel Castro’s formal handover of power to his  brother Raul.

U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged “a new beginning”  with Cuba and eased certain restrictions under a 47-year-old  trade embargo imposed by President John F. Kennedy as Fidel  Castro moved toward a Cold War alliance with the Soviet Union.

But Obama has made clear he will keep the embargo in place  to press Havana to allow more political freedom, and Cuba’s  leadership has ruled out any “concessions”.

In her blogger vignettes about daily life in Cuba, the  33-year-old Sanchez has written humorously about hardships  faced by Cubans — like shortages of lemons, and the need to  climb 14 stories to her apartment because the building’s  Soviet-era elevators are in a constant state of disrepair.

In an interview late last week, she spoke about the dire  state of Cuba’s economy, and said people’s willingness to  accept more sacrifices on behalf of what she calls a “dying”  regime was under question as perhaps never before.