Cuba Will Expand Private, Free Market Capitalism

February 10, 2021 7:55am

Last weekend, Cuba announced they will expand the country's private economy. Cubans will be permitted to be employed in a broader range of privately owned businesses or to open certain private businesses of their own. The reforms are not as sweeping as they ought to be, but it's progress. This is good news for the people of Cuba. And hopefully, it is one step closer to the United States ending its pointless 59 year-old embargo. More details can be read at this CNN story.

In 2016, when I accompanied President Obama on his historic visit to Havana as part of the official White House Press Corps, I wrote pieces for the Pensacola News Journal in addition to my reporting duties for the radio station. Some of those delved into why the embargo should end. If you're interested, here are the links to them:

3/19/16: Column: Visiting Cuba with President Obama

3/21/16: Mike Bates in Cuba: Traveling no easy task

3/21/16: Mike Bates: Enthusiasm, optimism in Cuba

3/22/16: Presidential visit, baseball game help with the healing

4/8/16: It’s good to renew ties with Cuba

The above photo, by the way, is of my producer Rob Ade and I in a 1955 Buick on Avenida del Puerto which parallels the Canal de Entrada of Havana Harbor the day before President Obama arrived.