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As Cuba's longtime leader Fidel Castro remains in recovery after intestinal surgery, many wonder about the future of Cuba.

I'm here with Ian Vaskas, director of the Project on Global Economic Liberty in today's daily podcast.

Are we witnessing just a change in leadership or true regime change in Cuba?

Well, it's beginning to look like what we're seeing in Cuba is a test run to eventual transition there.

Castro may be recovering we don't really know because it's pretty opaque closed

system so there's not much information. But the big question remains and that is if the

transition that we're seeing is only a transition of leadership or it's a transition into a different

kind of regime and that's a question that nobody can truly answer I think even

within Cuba because these things are very unpredictable. One scenario would be

that Roe, Castro would begin to compromise on some of the socialist principles if he

stayed in power and begin opening up and reforming a little bit.

Part of the reason I think that is because there's widespread

discontent on the island with the status quo. People simply have not been doing

well under communism as most of us would expect.

And the military itself is a constituency that may very well favor reform.

After all, they're very involved in business activities since the 1990s.

When Cuba lost its patron, the Soviet Union, and with it the four to six billion dollars

in subsidies that it was receiving. That forced Cuba to make some

adjustments and it was Ro Castro who was advocating opening up to foreign investment in some areas

...