Revolutionary Cuba's golden age ended in [1988][1989][1990], when the former Soviet Union adopted world prices in its trade with Cuba, ceased new lending, and discontinued its subsidization of the Cuban economy. The result was the economic meltdown of 1989-1994. In 1992, President Fidel Castro labeled the new epoque the "Special Period in Time of Peace," a title that has, in 2010, lasted almost two decades. Many outside observers have imagined that Cuba would in time follow Eastern Europe and

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... e former Soviet Union in making a transition toward a more market-oriented economic system and perhaps a Western style of pluralistic democracy. This has not happened. The modest economic changes of the early 1990s have not led to sustained reform. Political reform has been almost undetectable. At times, rapid change has seemed inevitable and imminent. But at others, it has appeared that gerontocratic paralysis might endure well into the 2010s. Change will undoubtedly occur, but its trajectory, timing,