Por Fernando Ravsberg
President Raul Castro traveled far to meet his closest ideological allies.
Like Cuba, China and Vietnam are survivors of the shipwreck of “real socialism”, but the latter two have already left the lifeboats and sail on ships themselves.
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Cuba launches a similar path but is proceeding slowly and clearly define its direction.
The authorities are careful to mention the word “reform” and only speak of an “adjustment” to avoid questioning the essence of the model that prevailed in the island for half a century.
No one knows exactly what the issues to be addressed by General-President with their Asian counterparts. It is difficult to filter out something, but among the leading Cuban interests is finding ways to move beyond the survival phase. º
And despite economic ties with Venezuela and political proximity with Hugo Chavez, is in Asia where Havana seeks its socialist model. And chances are that you find in Hanoi.
The Exploration
The contacts between Chinese and Cuban multiply each year thanks to the Chinese credit support.
The trip of President Raul Castro is part of an intense flow of contacts between the three nations.
It was preceded by the visit of Vietnamese leaders, the future Vice President Xi Jinping, Chinese top leader and architect of the Cuban reforms, Marino Murillo.
Official information about the trip takes just two paragraphs in the official newspaper, reported that only visit China and Vietnam and accompanying Ricardo Cabrisas, vice president of the Council of Ministers and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
Such an economy of words keeps people apart from the trip.
However, most Cubans speculate in the same direction, “seek a vision of how to implement the market economy in Cuba,” he says in a Havana street Deianeira Rodriguez.
Abelardo Mena, curator of the Museum of Fine Arts, he told BBC News he does not know what issues will play the President in Asia but it believes “may be a fact finding mission to examine firsthand the possible application in Cuba of the model in these countries “.
The presence chinaTanto China and Vietnam are part of Cuban life preserver. Beijing is the second largest trading partner of Cuba to U.S. $ 1,900 million.
Transportation in Cuba works mostly with buses, cars and locomotives in China. Also come from that country the low-energy refrigerators and other appliances million were distributed to all Cuban families.
However, despite the ideological identification, bilateral relations are such as existed in the Soviet Union.
Chinese credits, the Cuban government gave millions of appliances to all Cuban families.
Beijing supports Cuba but also protects your credit guaranteeing them with some of the Cuban nickel reserves.
The good relations between Cuba and Latin America make it an ideal bridge to invest in a region not affected by the global crisis.
In fact an “army” of young people are trained and on the island, thousands of Chinese studying Castilian on the outskirts of Havana.
An old amigoCon Vietnam relations dating from the war with the United States are much narrower and have a strong ideological character.
Cuba supported morally and practically the Vietnamese guerrillas and reconstruction.
In the midst of war, Fidel Castro visited the liberated territories of South and Cuba remained in the area to an ambassador. Brigades of Cuban doctors attended to the wounded in Hanoi, while workers and engineers worked together in secret road construction.
After the end of the war, Havana sent hundreds of technicians, including advising in tilapia fish farming and coffee.
Paradoxically today Vietnam exports $ 2,000 million in tilapia and also sells coffee, while Cuba has to import it, explained Raul Castro.
But the Vietnamese were not ungrateful, is the first vendor of rice in Cuba and more than once sent boatloads free.
For oil in Caribbean waters and agricultural technical advice to Cuban farmers.
THE CUBAN LOOK
Chinese companies extracting oil in the Vietnamese land while looking in Cuban waters.
More than in the XXI Century Socialism proclaimed by Chávez, the way of Cuba seems to be to their Vietnamese partners.
Several delegations of Cuban economists and businessmen were sent to China and Vietnam to study their socio-economic realities.
Most Cuban experts agree that Vietnam is much closer to Cuba than China, given the country’s area, the number of inhabitants, the social, political structure and the conflict with U.S.
The friendship and ideological identification has not been an obstacle to each leader that Vietnamese are reminded Cubans that if you really want to push the reforms first and most important change in mentality.
To carry out a “Doi Moi” (renovation) as he made off to Vietnam, the Cuban authorities need to give much stronger steps to break with a model that proved its economic inefficiency.
Sources: FernandoRavsberg/BBC/UK/InternetPhotos/TheCubanHistory.com
QueBuscaRaulCastroenChina/ The Cuban History/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor