Lest anyone get carried away and think Havana is about to become Des Moines, the article, written by former Radio Marti news director Jay Mallin and former Miami Herald Latin America editor Don Bohning, notes that Raul "has visited China and is believed to admire the Chinese model (rampant capitalism in the economy, tight communist control of the government) and to want to install it in Cuba."
But relations between Washington and Havana are clearly de-icing, though the odd case of Alan Gross
of Potomac, an Agency for International Development contractor
imprisoned in Cuba for the crime of distributing cellphones and laptops
in Cuba's tiny Jewish community, probably will need to be resolved -
maybe a Yom Kippur release? - for the thaw to continue.
Meanwhile, the cultural landscape continues to change. The Obama administration last month approved the American Ballet Theater, where the famous Cuban prima ballerina Alicia Alonso got her start, performing in November in Havana for the first time in 50 years - at the Karl Marx Theatre. Fidel is a fan of Alonso, now 89, the Soldier of Fortune piece notes.
Maybe one of the Castros will escort her to the ballet, Mallin suggested in an e-mail.
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