That's the kind of situation it can manage most easily, by simply tightening controls, he said. Crises with United States Proponents of that argument can point to the past. Castro instigated crises in bilateral relations after receiving friendly advances from Presidents Ford in 1976, Carter in 1980 and Clinton in 1994. None of the above arguments focuses, however, on what it is that Cuba fears. That is perhaps the hardest question to answer in a country where the Communist Party rules and censors the media.
Official corruption is rampant.
Since government and party officials are among the least likely to receive dollars from relatives in Miami, they are the ones most driven to corruption to make ends meet. Crime is soaring, not only because of the grinding economy but because of what Cardinal Jaime Ortega, archbishop of Havana, has described as a rent in the moral fabric of the island. Cubans' widespread resignation that little is likely to change until Castro dies appears to be edging toward criticism of the hardships they face every day.