All Blog Posts from World Watch

Ever since Raul Castro became Cuba’s President in February 2008, people—at home and abroad—have been waiting for changes that would improve living conditions on the island. But the changes have been slow coming and there are indications that when they do take place they might not be the ones hoped for.

For three days this week, the official Communist Party daily, Granma, has front-paged statements made in the 1970s and 80s by former President Fidel Castro. They are all variations on the same theme: too many people being employed to do too little, and low productivity as the bane of the economy. He also warned that at some point there would be more university graduates than openings in their fields and that students should view their degrees as an honor but not necessarily as a ticket to a professional career.

Castro’s statement printed last Tuesday focused on “inflated” payrolls. Inside the same newspaper was an article announcing that the Ministry of Agriculture would be cutting thousands of bureaucratic jobs. Twenty-six percent of their employees - 89,000 people - it said, were office workers resulting in an “excess of unproductive personnel.”

Cubans fear that similar layoffs will come in many other sectors of the economy and that Granma’s publication of Fidel Castro’s views—if dated—on the issue are rather like trying to put the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” on what are bound to be unpopular if necessary measures taken by his younger brother Raul.

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Cuban President Raul Castro was short on details as he implied difficult economic times were still here for Cubans. The world economic crisis, and particularly a reduction in income from exports, means Cuba cannot meet its projected growth index, Castro told an early Sunday morning rally in the eastern Cuban city of Holguin.

From Havana, CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum reports that in his short, 34-minute speech at the traditional July 26 rally marking Cuba's Day of National Rebellion (the 1953 armed uprising against the Batista dictatorship that six years later brought his older brother Fidel to power), Raul Castro reiterated the urgent need to increase agricultural production to replace food imports. (At present, Cuba buys 80% of the food it consumes from international suppliers.)

Castro, who stepped in to run the country when Fidel Castro was sidelined by illness in 2006, reiterated his call for more people to return to the land. On July 26, 2007, he had announced a plan to provide free leases to land parcels to those interested in growing fruits and vegetables. That program, he told rally participants, is moving along "satisfactorily."

An expert in U.S.-Cuba relations noted that among the surprising elements of Castro's speech was that, not only did he focus almost exclusively on domestic issues but that — despite the economic hardships facing the island — the U.S. embargo was barely mentioned.

"Instead of blaming the embargo for our problems, he talked about what we have to do to overcome its impact," noted researcher Carlos Alzucaray.

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Addressing foreign ministers from the Non-Aligned Movement, Raul Castro says U.S. administration needs to lift embargo against island nation.

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A Cuban Government overhaul and the replacement of various prominent Ministers announced Monday has taken an even more unexpected turn as former President Fidel Castro weighs in in support of the moves with some startling comments questioning the behavior and motives of two of the top figures in question.

Describing them only as "the two mentioned in the wires as the most affected”, Castro who was sidelined by illness in 2006, writes that the “honey of power, for which they had made no sacrifice, awakened in them ambitions that led them to a shameful role."

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Cuban President Raul Castro was in Moscow today to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev – the first such visit by a Cuban leader in more than 20 years.

Castro and Medvedev have an extensive agenda on their hands – humanitarian relief supplies, a $20 million loan, and stepping up mutual cooperation in the spheres of trade, science, technology and culture.

But it seemed something else was on Castro's mind when he arrived at the Russian president's residence in Zavidovo, 75 miles northwest of Moscow – something of a gastronomic nature.

Medvedev's staff knew in advance what it was: lard.

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Rumors that Cuban leader Fidel Castro is dead or close to death seem to surface every few months.

But a longtime Castro watcher in the intelligence community says the latest bout of rumors "smells a little different," reports CBS News' David Martin. The source says that they are coming in from so many different places that he gives more credence to them than usual.

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