Cuba’s Struggling Economy Needs a Jolt

To survive in Cuba, Alejandro Menéndez has kept one step ahead of the Communist government’s long reach. He used to shoot photographs for the alternative magazines that began to pop up when Raúl Castro assumed the presidency after his ailing brother Fidel stepped aside in 2006. After a crackdown on the independent press a few years ago, Menéndez and some friends started a music label they christened Band Era, a play on the Spanish word for flag. So far they’ve avoided scrutiny by eschewing political messages of any kind, he says.

Now, Cuba is approaching its most significant political transition in Menéndez’s lifetime. For the first time since the brothers led the revolution in 1959, the island nation of 11.5 million will be ruled by someone other than a Castro. Fidel died in 2016 and Raúl is set to formally cede the presidency when the National Assembly convenes on April 18. He’ll be passing the baton to Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel, 57, who personifies a younger generation of technocrats who have come up through the party ranks.