ANALYSIS: Power transfer is complete, Cuba remains on Fidel's course
By Franz Smets
México
Deutsche Presse-Agentu
Infosearch:
José F. Sánchez
Bureau Chief
Cuba
Research Dept.
La Nueva Cuba
June 17, 2007
Mexico City - For months, the same success stories have been coming out
of Cuba: the ailing revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is getting better,
he has recovered almost fully.
Castro is in fact quite healthy, Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon told
a US television channel. Fidel talked to a Vietnamese visitor for two
hours, another three hours to a Chinese visitor, and six hours to
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Castro exercises, writes, reads and follows the prescriptions of his
doctors.
'I tell my compatriots only that I do what I have to, there is no
secret, you cannot speak more clearly,' Castro said a few days ago in a
televised interview.
It is no wonder that the world has from the start been kept up to date
through 'Castrology.' Retouched photographs and videos were studied in
the closest detail. His voice and even the colours of the tracksuit worn
by the Cuban president - who is otherwise seen in military fatigues -
were used in attempts to analyse Castro's health condition.
Indeed, the Cuban leadership kept everything in the dark from the start.
Castro's illness was a state secret, and the transfer of power to his
brother Raul Castro was a temporary measure that deserved no further
comment.
As Fidel Castro struggled with death following his first failed surgery,
there was a power transfer in revolutionary Cuba, which had thanks to
Fidel steadfastly withstood all changes in the world. The transfer was
not democratic, but it took place according to plan, and nowadays Cuba
is ruled just like before, only without Fidel Castro at the helm.
There was not, and there still isn't, anyone in sight - in the new
leadership or in broader society - who could effectively question that
which Castro stands for.
Renowned dissidents are either in prison or in exile. There is no
noticeable opposition. And most people in Cuba remain silent, constantly
under a state of emergency amid a fear imposed from above that the
United States, the evil empire, could attack Cuba.
Since illness forced Castro to retreat from the public eye, Cuba has
been closed off even more. Only a few foreign journalists are allowed
into the country; international radio and television signals are
blocked; the internet, computers and modern telephone systems are
foreign concepts to most Cubans. They can only read, see and hear what
the government wants them to.
And as usual in communist systems, people cannot be economically active
for their own enrichment. That is what scares the leaders of communist
nations the most - that someone could be in a position to exist without
the state.
And now Castro has reappeared. Almost recovered, but not yet presentable
before the public eye - he writes texts with messages for domestic and
foreign audiences.
In them, he divides the world between good and evil. The evil are the
western democracies, 'puppets' of the United States. The good are his
friends, first and foremost Venezuelan President Chavez, who lures
leftist Latin American governments with his country's vast oil wealth
and turns them against the 'imperialist' as he pejoratively calls the
United States.
This axis includes Nicaraguan Sandinista President Daniel Ortega,
Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales. Ortega travels around
the world in a plane loaned him by Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar
Gaddafi, to visit the likes of Iran and Senegal.
Iran, as an enemy of the United States and with huge oil wealth to boot,
has become a firm political component of Fidel's South American allies,
and of Cuba itself after Castro visited Iran in 2001.
Iranian Industry Minister Ali Reza Tahmasbi recently announced in Havana
an expansion of economic cooperation with Cuba, which is to rise soon to
the level of Venezuelan-Iranian trade, although no concrete figures were
mentioned.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-07-06-1701.htm
By Franz Smets
México
Deutsche Presse-Agentu
Infosearch:
José F. Sánchez
Bureau Chief
Cuba
Research Dept.
La Nueva Cuba
June 17, 2007
Mexico City - For months, the same success stories have been coming out
of Cuba: the ailing revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is getting better,
he has recovered almost fully.
Castro is in fact quite healthy, Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon told
a US television channel. Fidel talked to a Vietnamese visitor for two
hours, another three hours to a Chinese visitor, and six hours to
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Castro exercises, writes, reads and follows the prescriptions of his
doctors.
'I tell my compatriots only that I do what I have to, there is no
secret, you cannot speak more clearly,' Castro said a few days ago in a
televised interview.
It is no wonder that the world has from the start been kept up to date
through 'Castrology.' Retouched photographs and videos were studied in
the closest detail. His voice and even the colours of the tracksuit worn
by the Cuban president - who is otherwise seen in military fatigues -
were used in attempts to analyse Castro's health condition.
Indeed, the Cuban leadership kept everything in the dark from the start.
Castro's illness was a state secret, and the transfer of power to his
brother Raul Castro was a temporary measure that deserved no further
comment.
As Fidel Castro struggled with death following his first failed surgery,
there was a power transfer in revolutionary Cuba, which had thanks to
Fidel steadfastly withstood all changes in the world. The transfer was
not democratic, but it took place according to plan, and nowadays Cuba
is ruled just like before, only without Fidel Castro at the helm.
There was not, and there still isn't, anyone in sight - in the new
leadership or in broader society - who could effectively question that
which Castro stands for.
Renowned dissidents are either in prison or in exile. There is no
noticeable opposition. And most people in Cuba remain silent, constantly
under a state of emergency amid a fear imposed from above that the
United States, the evil empire, could attack Cuba.
Since illness forced Castro to retreat from the public eye, Cuba has
been closed off even more. Only a few foreign journalists are allowed
into the country; international radio and television signals are
blocked; the internet, computers and modern telephone systems are
foreign concepts to most Cubans. They can only read, see and hear what
the government wants them to.
And as usual in communist systems, people cannot be economically active
for their own enrichment. That is what scares the leaders of communist
nations the most - that someone could be in a position to exist without
the state.
And now Castro has reappeared. Almost recovered, but not yet presentable
before the public eye - he writes texts with messages for domestic and
foreign audiences.
In them, he divides the world between good and evil. The evil are the
western democracies, 'puppets' of the United States. The good are his
friends, first and foremost Venezuelan President Chavez, who lures
leftist Latin American governments with his country's vast oil wealth
and turns them against the 'imperialist' as he pejoratively calls the
United States.
This axis includes Nicaraguan Sandinista President Daniel Ortega,
Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales. Ortega travels around
the world in a plane loaned him by Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar
Gaddafi, to visit the likes of Iran and Senegal.
Iran, as an enemy of the United States and with huge oil wealth to boot,
has become a firm political component of Fidel's South American allies,
and of Cuba itself after Castro visited Iran in 2001.
Iranian Industry Minister Ali Reza Tahmasbi recently announced in Havana
an expansion of economic cooperation with Cuba, which is to rise soon to
the level of Venezuelan-Iranian trade, although no concrete figures were
mentioned.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-07-06-1701.htm
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