Poll - Cubans expect US detente to improve economic lives

Poll: Cubans expect US detente to improve economic lives
BY MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
04/08/2015 8:26 PM 04/08/2015 8:26 PM

HAVANA
Cubans overwhelmingly expect detente with the United States to alter
their widely disliked economic system, according to a rare poll of 1,200
people across the island.

The poll released Wednesday found less optimism about Cuba's political
future, with 54 percent saying the single-party government would not
change as a result of closer ties. The poll found that 53 percent of
Cubans are dissatisfied with the political system and 52 percent want
more than one political party.

The poll also found that 97 percent of those interviewed thought
normalization with the U.S. was good for Cuba and that while 55 percent
want to emigrate from Cuba, 73 percent feel optimistic about the future.

Seventy-nine percent of those polled over 10 days last month by the
Miami-based polling firm Bendixen & Amandi on behalf of The Washington
Post and Univision Noticias/Fusion said they were not satisfied with
Cuba's centrally planned economy. But 64 percent said they expected that
system to change because of the decision late last year to re-establish
diplomatic ties between the countries and move toward normalization. The
poll, which Bendixen & Amandi call the most comprehensive measure of
Cuban public opinion in decades, did not break down the ways in which
respondents expected it to change.

The results show the limits of a Cuban effort to lower expectations of
better lives because of the Dec. 17 announcement by presidents Barack
Obama and Raul Castro. Most Cubans were elated by the announcement and
Obama's loosening of restrictions on trade. Many said it removed their
government's ability to blame a stagnant economy and widespread
shortages of basic goods on a half-century of U.S. isolation.

The government swiftly filled official media with repeated reminders
that a U.S. trade embargo remains in place. Castro and lower-ranking
officials also warned the U.S. not to expect any changes in Cuba's
single-party system.

Eighty percent of Cubans surveyed in the new poll had positive opinions
of Obama, while 47 percent had positive opinions of Raul Castro.
Regional polls show a similar pattern, with Obama more popular than
local leaders in many Latin countries.

The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Cuban media do not conduct polls using internationally accepted
standards and unauthorized polling by foreign press or non-governmental
organizations is illegal and extremely unusual.

Bendixen & Amandi vetted and trained locally hired poll-takers and sent
them door-to-door in 13 of Cuba's 15 provinces, checking their data
after it was collected to make sure it was accurate and representative,
managing director Fernand Amandi said Wednesday. The poll had a margin
of error of 2.8 percentage points.

While 75 percent of respondents told polltakers that they felt that they
had to be careful about what they said in their daily lives, Amandi said
he was pleasantly surprised by their openness.

"We actually found them to be very candid, very frank," he said.

Source: Poll: Cubans expect US detente to improve economic lives | Miami
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