Word: havana
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...vast majority of the population," says a Western diplomat, "is sitting and waiting until the situation is resolved for them." In the streets of Havana there is little proto-capitalist bustle. The government says 86,000 people out of Cuba's 11 million have applied for the required license, but it is not easy to find the new mom-and-pop enterprises. Canadian mining executive Bill McGuinty thinks his Cuban co-workers are eager to learn capitalist ways -- up to a point. They are shocked by his attempts to bypass bureaucracy and befuddled by the quid pro quos of networking...
Those who do not love Fidel have few options: wait until he dies, or flee. Ricardo and Raul are scheming to escape by sea, when they are not drunk on bootleg rum. Quaffing cocktails and beer at Ernest Hemingway's old haunt, La Bodeguita del Medio in Old Havana, they rail against the system, unconcerned that they might be overheard. At 21, Ricardo is just out of prison after serving a nine-month term: he got drunk and spat on a statue of independence hero Jose Marti. Now he is officially a nonperson and unable to find...
...mile charter flight from Miami to Havana went as planned until the final approach to the airport. Suddenly the pilot announced a landing delay because of unexpected congestion. "The problem wasn't other planes but cows on the runway. We ended up circling for 25 minutes until they were cleared away," said TIME senior editor Johanna McGeary on her return from a two-week reporting assignment that led to this week's cover story...
McGeary's visit was a rare opportunity, because the U.S. generally forbids its citizens to visit Cuba, and Havana issues few visas to American reporters. Exploring what may lie ahead for the long-isolated country was an irresistible challenge to McGeary, who had served as TIME's State Department correspondent and Jerusalem bureau chief before becoming editor of the World section in 1988. McGeary is not one to grow complacent behind a desk. "The best part of journalism is reporting," she says. "I was a correspondent for 14 years before turning editor, and I'm still keen...
...candor may stem from desperation. There are chronic food shortages (except in tourist hotels) and a virtual absence of such necessities as toilet paper and toothpaste. The capital's cityscape is bleak. "Havana is absolutely empty at night. There are no cars, no lights and no people on the streets, except for prostitutes," McGeary says. Yet most Cubans refuse to lose hope. Their vitality is what adds so much intrigue to the unfolding saga of the western hemisphere's last remaining Communist outpost...