Photographe Montréal - Cuba in transition Photographe Montréal - Cuba in transition

CUBA IN TRANSITION


Since the fall of the USSR, Cuba has been under unprecedented economic pressure. Nearly 30 years after the "special period" and still under US embargo, the Castro's final regime has no choice but to gradually bend to the market economy. Despite a successful shift to mass tourism, the Cuban economy remains stifled.



In 2011, nearly 500,000 state jobs were cut, and Raúl Castro had to accompany this measure with an unprecedented ideological easing, namely the authorization to trade for private purposes. Since then, the island has witnessed palpable changes, and the first signs of a middle-class coming are more and more evident.



Added to this is an essential element: openness to the Internet. An uncensored Internet to which the population begins to have access thanks to cards sold a few pesos, and which makes it possible to connect, in the street, with the hotspots which are multiplied in the cities and on which the Cuban youth is rushing. A youth full of desire for renewal, which adopts more than ever the codes of the West, and which seems to confirm that it will not save the Castro revolution.



Mobility, Internet, big brands, luxury goods and Western influence: the transformation in Cuba is underway.

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