Despite a tough '04, Castro supporters offer a rosy scenario.(The Dallas Morning News)

Byline: Tracey Eaton

HAVANA _ Fidel Castro summed up 2004 like this: "There couldn't have been a worse year, and there couldn't have been a better year, either."

Two hurricanes, a stubborn drought, spiraling energy costs and stepped-up U.S. sanctions hammered the economy. But Cuba survived and managed to move forward, Castro supporters say.

The economy grew at a rate of 5 percent, and unemployment dropped to 2 percent. A reserve containing as many as 100 million barrels of oil was discovered off the northern coast, the government reported. And in late December, Castro delivered some remarkable news, saying for the first time that Cuba was finally emerging from the "Special Period in Peacetime," an economic austerity program launched in 1991 after the collapse of the island's chief sponsor, the former Soviet Union.

Castro's critics say the government's economic figures are revolutionary nonsense. And they contend that living standards are actually sinking.

"Families can barely feed themselves, and there is little room for luxuries like children's toys or a night out with the family," said James Cason, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba.

Castro is "determined to remain on the wrong side of history," he said, while Cubans wait for his "strange and unsuccessful experiment to come to an end."