Castro and Company Open Cuba's Doors

Castro and Company Open Cuba's Doors
At Summit, Leaders Push Third World Alliance
By MARC FRANK

HAVANA, Cuba, Sept. 16, 2006 — - This week, Cuba used the mystery
surrounding Fidel Castro's health to attract attention to the Nonaligned
Movement summit in Havana.

With the help of ally Hugo Chavez, the country kicked-off an effort to
revitalize the 116-member NAM organization and transform it into a force
countering U.S. predominance in the world.

Hundreds of journalists poured into the country. It was the first time
Cuba opened its doors to them since Castro underwent emergency surgery
for intestinal bleeding and temporarily handed power to brother Raul
Castro on July 31. They were far more interested in the 80-year-old
revolutionary's health and that of the Caribbean island than the summit.

Cuba obliged: Pictures and video streamed from Castro's secret clinic
showing Fidel Castro sitting and then standing as he met a few close
allies, who then announced he was giving orders by phone, gaining
weight, walking and even singing. Word Castro would not preside at the
summit came only as the meeting opened on Friday.

"Fidel will be playing baseball soon," Chavez said after a chat with the
commandante upon arrival, proceeding then to spew forth fiery anti-U.S.
rhetoric at every opportunity and vow that NAM will become a force to be
reckoned with.

"Chavez sees his role as inheriting Castro's international profile,"
said Frank Mora, a national security expert at the War College in
Washington. "He will speak for the abused and the poor as Fidel did for
decades. … Raul will be the successor in Cuba; Chavez, the successor in
the international arena."

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with Fidel Castro
immediately after arriving in Havana, the first personality outside the
circle of confidants to visit him since he became ill.

Meanwhile, like a well-oiled machine, Castro's seconds-in-command worked
the summit and press.

First Vice President and Defense Minister Raul Castro stood in for his
brother, welcoming each country to Friday's summit opening over which he
presided. It was Raul's international debut after serving his brother
faithfully for 47 years on the domestic front.

Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon gave press conferences and
interviews to the U.S. media, insisting Fidel Castro remained head of
the country and the Cuban delegation to the summit, thus the NAM
president for the next three years.

"If, in fact, Fidel Castro is recovering, the NAM presidency is really
the perfect golden parachute," quipped Julia Sweig, Latin America
director at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Up-and-coming leaders Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister
Felipe Perez Roque met some of the arriving participants and gave
speeches during the preliminary meetings and activities.

The NAM, formed in 1961 to define interests of the Third World apart
from the Soviet Union and the United States, has floundered since the
end of the Cold War. It will be difficult to turn the organization,
which operates by consensus despite huge differences among members such
as India and Pakistan, into a united force.

"Many members of the non-aligned movement do not get along and disagree
on basic issues like nuclear disarmament, the need for open markets and
democratic values," said Dan Erikson, Caribbean expert at the
Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

The Cubans learned during the week how difficult a task it will be to
lead NAM, as their proposals to adopt majority versus consensus rule and
joint Cuban-Venezuela health, literacy and energy initiatives were defeated.

The final declaration of more than 150 pages contained a laundry list of
international and regional issues and often contradictory positions,
with the only unifying message being that the developing world remains
unhappy over the developed world's political, military and economic
stance toward them.

While Castro and Chavez worked to make the event an anti-U.S. gathering,
many countries that have worked closely with the United States to fight
terrorism were present, as were the vice president of Iraq and foreign
minister of Afghanistan.

The United States, invited to observe, declined and called for a
referendum on democracy in Cuba.

"It's a gathering that has its origins in another era," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington. "And I think it's
really up to the participants and the member states to see what it is
that they make of this gathering."

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