Updated: 09:34, Tuesday September 6, 2011
The sudden death this week of Cuba's defence minister, General Julio
Casas Regueiro, underscores the challenge Cuba faces replacing a
generation of revolutionary leaders who are now in their eighties,
analysts say.
President Raul Castro's right hand man, Casas Regueiro was the number
four person in the Cuban hierarchy when he dropped dead of a heart
attack on Saturday at the age of 75.
Above him on the power pyramid is the president, who celebrated his 80th
birthday in June; first vice president Jose Ramon Machado, who will be
81 in October; and the historic revolutionary commander Ramiro Valdes,
who turned 79 in April.
"This death is a warning to Raul that there is little time left to
retire the generation of historic leaders. It's a call to think
seriously about replacements and the rejuvenation of the top leadership
of the Communist Party," said Cuban analyst Arturo Lopez-Levy of the
University of Denver.
At the end of a Communist Party congress in April that approved sweeping
economic reforms, the average age of the members of the party's
decision-making Politburo was lowered from 70 to 67.
But that was achieved mainly by reducing its size from 19 to 15, as only
three of its members are under the age of 65.
"The other historic leaders of the revolution have little time left. The
death of the armed forces chief underscores the absurdity of trying to
cling to the past and resist reforms," Michael Shifter, president of
Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP.
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