ABSTRACT
Cuba was meeting some 70 percent of its own pharmaceutical needs and was exporting state-of-the-art drugs for treating cancer, AIDS, and other scourges of the times. Members of Cuba's National Assembly have been elected directly since 1993 rather than by provincial assemblies. The basic counterrevolutionary strategy has been less often a response or reaction to a revolutionary one than to a populist strategy featuring economic nationalism and political liberalization. The counterrevolutionary strategy outlined here is essentially one that characterized military dictatorship in South America's Southern Cone—Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile—and Brazil between the 1960s and the 1980s. The election to the highest political office of a popular reformer representing a broadly based constituency became possible most often in times of economic crisis. Such a development was an indication that political power and economic power were out of kilter. The ritual of an election should not normally be viewed as conferring power upon the popular choice.
