Reforma agraria y estructura social en Cuba

Abstract

This article analyzes the impacts of Cuba's new agrarian reform, which began in 1993, as well as some of the tensions arising from this process of change. The colective and individual beneficial use (usufruct) of public lands by the Unidades Básicas de Producción Cooperativa (Basic Units of Cooperative Production) and the new producers who have joined the Cooperativas de Créditos y Sservicios (Credit and Cooperative Services) are spawning two new social groups that are changing the agrarian sector's social structure and making it more heterogeneus: the cooperative workers and the new beneficial owners (usufructuarios), or parceleros. The contradictions surrounding statecooperative property condition characteristics related to social class, while the new campesinos with usufructuary rights include a broad range of individuals who have made a less contradictory move from their earlier non-campesino status to their current class position