HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of a 1959 revolution whose leader Fidel Castro transformed the island into a communist state that has survived despite long years of opposition from the nearby United States and the collapse of its Cold War benefactors. The revolution's landmark anniversary comes at a time when the era of Fidel Castro, now 82 and ailing, is winding down and uncertainty hangs over the future of the Cuba he built into an improbable world player admired for its social gains but criticized for its human rights record. A celebration that had been expected to be a major event has been subdued in a nation mired in economic problems and divided on what the revolution has wrought. President Raul Castro, who officially replaced ailing older brother Fidel Castro in February, was to speak on Thursday evening in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba from the same balcony which the elder Castro proclaimed victory after U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled on January 1, 1959.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Thursday celebrated the 50th anniversary of a 1959 revolution whose leader Fidel Castro transformed the island into a communist state that has survived despite long years of opposition from the nearby United States and the collapse of its Cold War benefactors.
The revolution's landmark anniversary comes at a time when the era of Fidel Castro, now 82 and ailing, is winding down and uncertainty hangs over the future of the Cuba he built into an improbable world player admired for its social gains but criticized for its human rights record.
A celebration that had been expected to be a major event has been subdued in a nation mired in economic problems and divided on what the revolution has wrought.
President Raul Castro, who officially replaced ailing older brother Fidel Castro in February, was to speak on Thursday evening in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba from the same balcony which the elder Castro proclaimed victory after U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled on January 1, 1959.
HAVANA, Dec 31 (IPS) - The Cuban Revolution's 50th anniversary on Jan. 1 finds the country facing the challenge of sorting out the economy and improving living conditions, in the context of a complex international situation that may make reaching those goals particularly difficult.The 1960s stand out in this Caribbean island nation's history as the decade when major economic and social changes came thick and fast, including the agrarian reform that put land in the hands of peasant farmers, the laws slashing housing rents by 50 percent, the mass literacy campaigns and free education and health services for all. These and other radical changes effected by the Revolution showed that "it is actually possible to build a country based on social criteria," Pável Vidal, a young economist with the University of Havana's Centre for the Study of the Cuban Economy (CEEC), told IPS. The Revolution "was able, in a relatively short time, to reduce extreme poverty, raise the level of and access to education, create greater opportunities for women and significantly improve the health conditions of the population," he said. However, the younger generations do not always appreciate these achievements. "What's the good of studying engineering for free, when what I can earn from my work won't be enough to live on?" said Manuel, a 22-year-old university student who also complained about the poor public transport and the lack of freedom to travel abroad.
