Cuba reforms are stalling

Cuban president Raúl Castro is preparing to step down next year, Venezuela has cut millions of dollars in aid and Donald Trump’s election has cast a shadow over the nascent US-Cuba detente. Unnerved by the changes, Havana has allowed its domestic reform drive to grind to a halt as the Communist party battens down the hatches. Marino Murillo, the senior official leading Cuba’s reforms, has not been heard in public for almost a year.

And:

The slowdown in domestic reforms suggests the orthodox wing of the Communist party is strengthening, says Carmelo Mesa-Lago, professor emeritus of economics at Pittsburgh University and a long-time Cuba watcher.

And:

Some US businesses have scaled back their initial euphoria about opportunities in Cuba. Although 615,000 Cuban-Americans and US tourists visited the country last year — of a total 4m foreign visitors — Frontier Airlines and Silver Airways cancelled scheduled US flights on March 13, citing lack of demand and market saturation. American Airlines and JetBlue have also reduced their schedules.

Here is the full FT piece by Marc Frank and John Paul Rathbone.  Here is my earlier Bloomberg column on Cuba.