Photo: Granma

[20060805 International Herald Tribune] As Raúl Castro, now at the helm of Cuba's government, confronts the task of navigating the island in the absence of his brother, one fewer worry he has is, surprisingly, the state of Cuba's once-moribund economy.

With Fidel Castro out of sight since undergoing emergency surgery on Monday, and the Bush administration calling for a transition to democracy, the pressure on Raúl Castro is alleviated in part because Cuba's economy has been recovering with the help of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, who shares both an ideological affinity and a sharp aversion of the Bush administration with the Castro brothers.

One of the last Communist countries, Cuba's economy is far from healthy, but it is also a world away from the one left destitute and marooned when Cuba's long-time benefactor, the Soviet Union, collapsed.

The credit goes largely to the economic lifeline thrown to Cuba by Chávez, who has been using his country's tremendous oil reserves to build an alliance with Cuba and Bolivia's new indigenous president, Evo Morales, to counter the conservative Bush administration in Latin America.

That has American officials, long determined to choke off Castro's government, exasperated that Venezuela, whose governments were once close to Washington, has helped turn around the Cuban economy just as policymakers thought dramatic change could take place.

"The current regime in Havana is working with like-minded governments, particularly Venezuela, to build a network of political and financial support designed to forestall any external pressure to change," says a 93-page U.S. government report issued last month for President George W. Bush on the likelihood of Cuba's transition to democracy.

GPC REPORT: HAVANA TALIBAN: CASTRO'S TROPICAL MUJAHIDEEN <LINK>

LAWS Cuban Constitution La República de Cuba es un Estado... Constitutional Reforms Nuestras reformas son, en primerisimo... Constitutional Modification  La Constitución de la República es intocable... Electoral Law Esta ley regula: la elección de los Delegados... Penal Law Se declara ilícita la Ley "Helms-Burton... Penal Code La ley penal aplicable es la vigente... Youth and Childhood Code La vida y desarollo, el presente...

SYSTEM Institutional Order Political sub-system, Politburo, Council of State,  Council of Ministers... Institutional Actors Cuban Communist Party, FAR, MININT... Regime Leaders/Policy Orientation Hardliners, reformers... SUCCESSION Actors in the succession process Raúlistas, military, technocrats...

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