It is laudable that the Star Tribune devoted significant space to analysis of developments on the island of Cuba, because it is undergoing some of its most important changes since the revolutionary government came to power almost 60 years ago ("Differential diagnosis," Opinion Exchange, June 3). Unfortunately, the ignorance of author Brandon Ferdig about basic aspects of Cuban reality deeply damaged his observations.
Ferdig's claim that Cubans own "essentially" no private property is blatantly false. Most significantly, 95 percent of Cubans own their own houses and apartments, a percentage far higher than the U.S. He also fails to discuss the economic reform process underway since 2011 whereby hundreds of thousands of Cubans as individuals or in cooperatives are operating their own businesses as restaurants, hair salons and automobile-repair shops. These actions are fully legal as the Cuban government seeks to update its socialist model and preserve the social gains of the last 60 years in areas such as education and health, where Cuba outperforms the U.S. while spending far fewer resources.
Cuba still faces major economic challenges, but those are made worse by a continuing U.S. embargo and blockade that largely prohibits U.S. citizens from trading and investing in Cuba and discourages investment from other countries.
Gary Prevost, Minneapolis
The writer is an emeritus professor of political science and Latin American studies at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University, and is the author of several books about Cuba.
• • •
Despite errors in Ferdig's portrait of Cuba such as "essentially no private ownership of assets," it's good that he sees the need to make comparisons with the reality most Americans face, at times to Cuba's advantage. But there is a subset of U.S. citizens that would make for a fairer comparison and, thus, avoid the apples-vs.-oranges problem.
Puerto Ricans have experienced a wrenching reality that no Cuban has to fear. A hurricane is a natural phenomenon. How a society prepares and responds to one testifies to its political priorities, whose class interests a government represents. Hurricane Maria laid bare, literally, the answer to the question. The recent Harvard study that projects almost 5,000 deaths in the aftermath of the hurricane is sobering evidence that the people of Puerto Rico do not have a government that represents their interests in their vast majority.
Cubans like other Caribbean islanders face the threat of hurricanes every season. A couple of months before the devastating impact Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans and environs in the summer of 2005 — about 1,800 deaths — Cubans too had to deal with potentially devastating hurricanes, two in fact. The total death toll was 15. That stark contrast to what took place in the U.S. is exactly why some of us were skeptical about the official report that only 64 Puerto Ricans had lost their lives in the wake of Maria.
