But it is clear from the details of the policy that the big winners will be foreign companies. Goods brought into the zones from within Cuba or from abroad are duty free. Che Guevara, an implacable opponent of foreign capital, must be spinning in his grave. Both investors and the Government benefit from the labour deal. The State acts as a broker supplying workers under contract to companies in the zones.
Cuban workers are by Latin American standards highly trained and educated.
They are also tightly controlled. Strikes are illegal. The Government can afford to give away the shop and it still comes out ahead. But the change which had the biggest immediate impact on living standards was the legalization of the dollar. Rather than shunt dollars into the black market the Government in a brilliant tactical move decided to capture this hard currency to help pay for scarce imports.