CUBA
Fidel still holds reins of power
BY BRIAN LATELL
afterfidel@aol.com
Offstage for almost three and a half years -- infirm, debilitated and
mostly confined to convalescent quarters -- Fidel Castro nonetheless
reasserted himself in 2009 as the dominant force in the Cuban leadership.
Now beginning his 52nd year in power -- he never surrendered the
overarching responsibility as First Secretary of the Communist Party --
his renewed preeminence is proving to be calamitous for Cuba.
By eclipsing brother Raúl, Cuba's titular president, and the many
technocrats Raúl elevated last year throughout the bureaucracy, Cuba's
intransigent old lion is likely provoking serious tensions in the
leadership. His actions have undermined Raúl's legitimacy and caused
lines of authority to blur, while confounding and, no doubt,
demoralizing many in the nomenclatura who had hoped for significant
policy changes.
Officials have watched helplessly as Raúl's signature initiatives for
promoting economic growth, engaging Cuba's younger generations and
consulting with the populace about the country's grave problems all
appear to have been scuttled by his brother. The Castros' priorities are
manifestly in conflict.
In March, Fidel took the public lead in purging two prominent younger
leaders. Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and Vice President Carlos
Lage were denounced in the same kind of scathing language that has
always characterized Fidel's style of leadership. In one of his
published commentaries he wrote that they had disgracefully succored
``the sweet nectar of power.'' They had also attracted too much
attention abroad as possible successors to the Castros. Lage had often
been described as Cuba's potential Gorbachev, the ambitious ``third
man'' in the leadership.
Fidel's more-assertive role was visible in the large volume of
commentaries published over his name last year. There were 111 of them,
a good deal more than during the two preceding years.
Virtually everything Fidel wrote in last year's reflections was devoted
to favorite international subjects. There was much about his allies and
acolytes Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales and about events in Honduras he
deplored, after President Manuel Zelaya was removed from office.
On April 21 he castigated and humiliated his brother for loose talk at a
meeting in Venezuela when -- seemingly in an inebriated state -- Raúl
expressed willingness to discuss almost everything with the Obama
administration. He included human rights, political prisoners and
freedom of the press in Cuba as issues open to negotiation. It was an
extraordinary blunder, bordering on revolutionary blasphemy, that
departed from 50 years of official dogma.
For Fidel that may have been the last straw. A reflection soon appeared
in the Cuban media insisting that Raúl had been misunderstood. Fidel
wrote that, ``When the president of Cuba said he was ready to discuss
any topic with the U.S. president, he meant he was not afraid of
addressing any issue. That shows his courage and confidence in the
principles of the revolution.''
It was necessary to emphasize again that the ideological and political
workings of the Cuban state would never be subject to negotiations with
Washington.
Fidel's expanded authority, indeed his newly invigorated hubris, has
also been evident in the current wave of repression that is the most
brutal since the sweeping crackdown in 2003. Violence against
dissidents, human-rights activists and the country's most renowned
blogger are all more characteristic of Fidel's classic style of
governing than of the somewhat more tolerant approach Raúl had followed
since he first succeeded his brother in July 2006.
The arrest of an American citizen in early December and other reprisals
by the regime against visitors from the United States representing
religious organizations are clearly intended to ratchet up bilateral
tensions. So far, however, the anti-American propaganda barrage expected
of Fidel -- but not necessarily of Raúl -- has not occurred.
And finally, the promotion of veteran revolutionary and two-time former
Minister of Interior Ramiro Valdés to one of several vice presidencies
of the nominally governing Council of State signals the complete
rehabilitation of a man remembered as one Cuba's toughest and most
feared hardliners.
Brian Latell is senior research associate, Cuba Studies, University of
Miami and author of After Fidel: Raul Castro and the Future of Cuba's
Revolution.
Fidel still holds reins of power - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com (12
January 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1420167.html
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