No Uprising Expected in Cuba

So says Jaime Suchlicki of the Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami in an article published in the Latin American Herald Tribune.

Cubans are too “intimidated” by the communist regime to rebel over the measures announced to deal with the grave economic crisis the island is going through, a U.S. analyst told Efe Monday.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami’s Institute of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, said that former President Fidel Castro and younger brother Raul – the current head of state – do not expect the situation to cause a “popular uprising.”

“I don’t believe a popular rebellion will take place – people are highly controlled by the security apparatus and many are waiting to leave the country – there are a lot of people who want to get out – or for a change coming from above,” the Cuban-born professor said.

Yes, I noticed the word intimidated in quotes.

Also, Suchlicki offers his view of what Cuba and the U.S. would be exchanging if a deal were ever to be made:

(I)f the United States did begin negotiations with Cuba, the regime would want an end to the ban on travel, an end to the 47-year-old trade embargo, and reparations for the $50 billion in losses Cuba blames on the decades of economic sanctions.

Havana would also demand the release and return of the five Cubans tried and convicted for espionage and Cuba’s removal from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In exchange, the Cuban government would be willing to pay compensation for U.S. properties confiscated after the revolution and would free most of its roughly 205 political prisoners “if they would be accepted by the United States,” Suchlicki said. EFE