When it comes to Cuba what is often missed is that its government’s primary focus is not on the process of normalising its relationship with the US, but on the far more fundamental domestic reforms that are gradually changing the country’s political and economic model in ways that are intended to better deliver its objectives.
For the rest of the Caribbean this is significant because it means that Cuba, far from allowing itself to be embraced by the US, plans to continue to resist Washington’s influence, defend its national values and independent global outlook, and continue developing its own social thinking.
To put this in perspective, consider the recently quoted words of Elián González, who was the subject of a custody battle in 2000 and who now appears to be emerging as a national role model for Cuban young people. In an interview with Granma, the Communist Party daily, he said this about the future of Cuba: “Sometimes young people believe that if we as a socialist country were to give way to capitalism, we would become a developed country like the United States, France, Italy… But we must be clear that if Cuba ceased to be socialist, it would become a colony of the
