CARL AZUZ, cnn 10 ANCHOR: Changes are coming to the communist nation of Cuba and why that's significant is the first story we're explaining this Wednesday. I'm Carl Azuz. Welcome to our viewers watching worldwide. The Caribbean country that's 90 miles away from U.S. soil has a turbulent history. In the 20th century, Cuba went from being controlled by one dictator to being controlled by another.
Fidel Castro, who led the revolution to overthrow Cuba's government in 1959 aligned his country with the communist Soviet Union. Cuba became a communist country itself. Its government took control of private businesses and all aspects of Cuban life. That, combined with the Cuban governments human rights abuses soured relations with the democratic United States.
It put a trade embargo on Cuba limiting American's ability to do business with the communist country and pressuring Cuba to make democratic reforms.
When the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse in 1990, it stopped its support for Cuba. The island lost billions of dollars in Soviet economic help every year and that crushed Cuba's economy.
In more recent years, its government has tried to improve conditions by loosening some of the economic controls while still keeping its grip on political power. Over the past 10 years, Cubans have been allowed to buy electronics and cell phones, buy and sell used cars and stay in hotels. The country is in the news now because it just announced that Cubans will be able to start their own businesses or get jobs in most fields of work.
Previously, Cuba's government would only allow private workers in certain fields like barbering, repairing tires or posing with tourists. And it still plans to prevent people from working in 124 different kinds of jobs though it didn't specify what those jobs are. A cnn correspondent on the island says the Cuban government will probably keep total control over healthcare and the media.
Still, the change will open up more than 2,000 different fields to Cuban workers. It's a major economic reform. It could lead to more opportunities and hope for Cubans but the British Broadcasting Corporation reports that the changes are likely to happen slowly. And a lot of the country's current private workers are in the tourism industry and that's been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. embargo.
