Steve Chapman: If Communism dies in Cuba, it's really, really dead

Communism has been proclaimed dead more than once in the past couple of decades. But today, it’s safe to say, it is really dead. Irreversibly dead. Cemetery dead.

Consider this comment from a knowledgeable Cuban critic who was asked whether the country’s brand of socialism, created by Fidel Castro after his 1959 revolution, could be of use in other countries: “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.” That remark would have gotten him in trouble with authorities — if his name were not Fidel Castro.