As Cuba turns page on Castro era, economic reform gains urgency

The Cuban government outlined its planned economic reforms in 2011, but a decade later, implementation has been slow and the country is confronting new and dire challenges along with historic ones.

Raul Castro has formally handed over the reins of Cuba’s Communist Party after decades as its first secretary, stepping down Friday during the first day of the party’s eighth congress. The changing of the guard in the country’s most powerful institution represents a shift from the revolutionary leadership of the Castro era to a new generation. It also comes at a time when the country’s economy is struggling and in urgent need of reform. Cuba’s economy shrank by 11 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to government figures, and travel restrictions hit the island’s tourism sector — and the foreign currency it brings in — particularly hard.