Duration: 1 hour
Shown on the BBC December 2012:
Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution. Two years ago Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world has begun rolling back the state on an unprecedented scale. Simon Reeve meets ordinary Cubans whose lives are being transformed, from the owners of fledgling businesses to the newly rich estate agents selling properties worth up to 750,000 pounds.
In this hour-long documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Simon gets under the skin of a colourful and vibrant country famous for its hospitality and humour and asks if this new economic openness could lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?
Credits
Series Producer
Sarah Waldron
Presenter
Simon Reeve
Director
Tom McCarthy
Producer
Tom McCarthy
Executive Producer
Sam Bagnall
Cuba With Simon Reeve
Two years since Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades, broadcaster Simon Reeve heads to the Caribbean island to look at how economic liberalization is taking hold of communist Cuba.