Changes in the socialist model in Cuba: keys to the light or the abyss

Abstract

The current process of changes in Cuba, characterized by the exponential growth of the market, forms of ownership and non-state management; deepening of the links with emigration and its investment role in the country, certain erosion of the traditional model of socialist construction, its system of values ​​and symbols that historically accredited it in the discursivity as a superior, human and liberating reality before the overwhelming majority of the people, emergence of new classes and social groups, proliferation of different ideologies, life projects, political interests, etc., imposes a set of challenges to the preservation of the socialist unity of the people, which must be exhaustively monitored by the new leadership. revolutionary. The objective of this work is to assess the changes that must be made in current Cuban society to avoid implosive phenomena in the near future and at the same time preserve the social system under construction. To do this, we delve deeper into the internal and external-contradictory and increasingly challenging context in which the changes take place. It is concluded that the preservation of socialist unity is only possible by replacing a previous development model based on omnipresent statism, which has not caused the advances desired by the people, with another multi-actor and efficient one, where the majorities reach the levels of well-being that ensure a decent quality of life as established in the constitutional text. This will demand political wisdom, assessment of the different possible strategies and, at the same time, the substantive participation of the majorities as fundamental actors of the transformations underway, committed and efficient.