Fidel Castro Passes Power to Little Brother Raul

Yesterday was the first day since January 1, 1959 that Fidel Castro, who will be 80 on the 13th of this month, was not the ultimate authority in Cuba. Owing to a bleeding stomach and/or intestine, the leader of the Cuban Revolution has passed his power over to his younger brother Raul, who is 75. Just as Charles X succeeded his brother Louis XVIII in France, the Cuban monarchy has shown its true colors. Those who believe Cuba is about to change soon are in for a disappointment.

The comparison with Charles X may be a bit unfair to Raul Castro; a better parallel is with Jeb Bush, the most talented of the Bush brothers, although quieter than (consequently, subordinate to) George. Raul has been in charge of the military in Cuba for as long as most Cubans can remember, and in a communist monarchy, that is the most sensitive position of all – that’s why Stalin kept killing his generals. Fidel trusts Raulito completely.

There is speculation, not entirely ridiculous, that says Fidel has already died. The announcement late Monday that he was passing power over to Raul was made by a secretary, Carlos Valenciaga, who read a letter allegedly written by the lider máximo. Fidel hasn’t been seen since the announcement, the official story being that he will be in the hospital for some weeks. It is just possible that the regime is trying to buy a little time to make sure Raul is comfortably seated atop his throne of bayonets. If this seems a bit ludicrous, remember that officially speaking Leonid Brezhnev and Constantine Chernenko only had head colds.

The Cuban exile community in Miami, Florida, and its environs cheered the news in the streets. They believe that when Fidel dies, and perhaps after Raul follows him, the communist regime in Cuban will collapse. “This is a clear reminder that the end of the Castro regime is approaching, and that the only solution is free elections and the rule of law,” Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) told the Associate Press. Yet what sort of elections will they be, when most of the Cubans still in Cuba have known only Fidel? Will those who left Cuba get to vote? Why should they? And remember, the people voted in Palestine, and Hamas won.

So, while the people in the Little Havana section of Miami are still partying, it is important to remember that when Fidel Castro dies (if he hasn’t yet), there are plenty of successors after Raul. Felipe Pérez Roque, the foreign relations minister and Castro’s former chief-of-staff, is 41 years old. When the Red Army marched into Hungary in 1944, many families fled awaiting better times for a return. Among them were Pál nagybócsai Sárközy and Andrée Mallah. Their son is the Nicolas Sarkozy, French minister of the interior and possibly the next President of the French Republic (not of Hungary). Whoever succeeds the House of Castro is more like in Cuba today than Florida.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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