Havana shocker

Havana shocker
February 2, 2008

Fidel Castro's kid brother upstaged him at the ballot box this month,
collecting the most votes of any candidate for the National Assembly.
Running for separate seats representing the eastern city of Santiago de
Cuba, the brothers -- surprise! -- won handily, as did all 612 other
candidates selected by the Cuban Communist Party. All were unopposed.

Still, the races were sufficiently suspenseful to draw a voter turnout
of 96 percent, a testament to civic activism in a nation whose citizens
are kind of sure voting is voluntary. And who says their voices aren't
heard? Thanks to the handful of Cubans who didn't put a check mark next
to Fidel's name, he ended up with a mere 98.2 percent of the vote. Raul
got 99.4.

Given the political situation in Cuba these days -- Raul's in charge
while Fidel recovers from some vague abdominal ailment -- it's tempting
to jump to conclusions about what will happen when the new assembly
meets Feb. 24. Its members will select a Council of State, the executive
branch whose president doubles as president of Cuba. That post has been
held only by Fidel.

His No. 2 finish in the Jan. 20 election has some wishful thinkers
speculating that Raul will formally ascend, and that could happen -- but
not because he outpolled his brother. Raul came in first in 2005, too,
getting 99.75 percent to Fidel's 99.01 percent. Not since Saddam Hussein
won 100 percent of the vote in Iraq's 2002 election have voters returned
such an unambiguous result, but Fidel got the nod over Raul that year,
anyway.

And that's what will happen this time, too, unless Fidel steps aside.
Though he hasn't been seen publicly since ceding authority to Raul in
July 2006, his lackeys say he's still involved in all major decisions.
From his sickbed, the 81-year-old president files regular anti-American
screeds for the state-run paper, Granma, and he was feeling good enough
this week to denounce President Bush's State of the Union address as
"the worst for its demagoguery, lies and total lack of ethics."

In December, after he was formally nominated for the National Assembly,
Fidel Castro wrote a letter to be read on state-run television, assuring
the Cuban people that he would not "cling to office" indefinitely or
stand in the way of a new generation of leaders. Whether that means
76-year-old Raul or 14-year-old Elian Gonzalez is anyone's guess. But if
lawmakers name Raul the president this month, it will be because Fidel
told them to.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0202edit2feb02,0,1703869.story