AT 9.01am one morning earlier this month, Marino Murillo, a member of Cuba’s ruling Politburo, strode on to the stage at the International Press Centre in Havana, gave a concise account of the government’s economic plans, and took questions for 45 minutes. What would have been routine elsewhere was remarkable in communist Cuba, for three reasons. Gone is the interminable waiting around for the late-night rants of Fidel Castro: punctuality is one of the hallmarks of the government led since 2006 by his younger brother, Raúl. And after internecine political battles over liberalising economic reforms, the government is confident enough of its message to have invited a small group of foreign journalists to hear it—the first such initiative in many years.
