Cuba is both pleasant and puzzling. And now that President Barack Obama has loosend currency and American travel restrictions there will be more head scratching. For instance, do the Castro brothers really want a drift toward democracy in return for an end to the trade embargo? Or wold they prefer a continuing dictatorship with them in control? It is by no means certain that the younger Castro would win an honest election and then he would have to surrender the rule he obviously enjoys.
Certainly, if all travel restrictions and investment by Americans were ended, the pleasant island would be transformed. Tourist hostels would spring up along the lovely beaches and perhaps even a return to casinos and organized crime that flourished before Castro's revolution.
In the several occasions I have spent time in Cuba, I have enjoyed it, although a stay at the resort area of Varedaro is disappointing. Cubans are not allowed to visit the resorts, except as staff, and you might as well be in Miami Beach. But at other times, I've travelled both by car and by donkey cart to villages and flower farms and had whispered conversations with many Cubans who resistt the government.
For the Cubans' sake I hope the trade and travel restrictions are ended but don't expect a painless transition.
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