Created: 2008-10-05 17:55:15

Modern Cuba hotels, clean cities, excellent entertainment packages, including, of course, activities like salsa dancing and cigar smoking... Developing and free Cuba, offering and marketing itself as best "Cuba Holidays" or "Cuba Travel" experience, known to be not worse than other Caribbean destinations, accepting tourists from all over the world, living peacefully and wealthy from tourism revenues... Is this only a dream, or a near possibility for a poor, dictator-ruled island?

Cuba is an island in the Caribbean, and a well-known location of dictatorship. This country has a one-party system, and was led by Fidel Castro for almost 50 years. Fidel is a fan of Marxist-Leninist theory, who took over the power by revolution, and created a communist regime in Cuba. While this helps to rule about 11 million residents and keep them under strict control, it has a very negative influence on country's economy. Majority of world's countries, including US, has economic sanctions or embargoes on Cuba. Country is very poor, and things got even worse after the collapse of the Soviet Union - the biggest supporter of Cuba. Nowadays Cuba has trade relations mainly with China and Venezuela only. Its whole economy relies mainly on little income from tourism, which could be a huge earner if country turned to democracy; and on money, sent home by Cubans, living abroad.

To get abroad is the biggest dream of every Cuban. As government forbids leaving country, people desperately try to escape illegally, as political refugees.

With almost all residents living vastly below poverty level, crimes become the easiest way to earn money for living, so prostitution, corruption, black marketing, narco-dealering, scamming and hustling are the most popular working spheres...

However, a little ray of hope flashed in 2008: as Fidel announced his retirement in February because of poor health, his younger brother, Raul, formally became a president. In past Raul was known as an iron-fist, who ruthlessly executed Fidel's enemies, but as a president he started some ruling and personal freedom reforms, who may be the first steps to democracy; for instance, he lifted bans on mobile phones and home computers. While his vice-president is one of the hardest communists, and there are no talks about elections or multi-party system, some other new generation communists in Cuba's politburo may initiate the beginning of the way to democracy for this little Caribbean island.