POLITICS-CUBA:
(When) Will Fidel
Return?
By
Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) -
President Fidel Castro
will not be attending
the Jul. 26
celebrations, one of the
most important annual
commemorations of the
Cuban Revolution, and
this prolongs
uncertainty over whether
or not he will resume
his official functions
until the forthcoming
elections.
The official newspaper
Granma announced on
Wednesday in a front
page article that the
Revolution Day
celebrations in Camagüey,
534 kilometres from
Havana, would be led by
Army General Raúl
Castro, First Vice
President of the Council
of State and Council of
Ministers.
Raúl Castro, Fidel's
brother and second in
command, has been
standing in for the
80-year-old Cuban leader
since Jul. 31, 2006,
when Fidel underwent the
first of a series of
operations for an
intestinal ailment.
However, official
circles in Cuba,
including the press,
avoid referring to Raúl
as "acting" or "interim"
president.
"What's important is
that there hasn't been a
power vacuum in the
country, and everything
is working... What Raúl
is called is of minor
importance, for now," an
analyst close to
government circles, who
wished to remain
anonymous, told IPS. The
source declined to make
any conjectures about
the future.
Jul. 26 commemorates an
attack on the Moncada
and Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes barracks in
1953 by a group of young
men, commanded by Fidel
Castro, which included
Raúl, his younger
brother, now 76.
The attack was a
military fiasco, but it
is regarded as the
starting point of the
armed insurrection that
ended on Jan. 1, 1959
with the victory of the
Cuban Revolution. Since
then, the date has been
celebrated annually with
official rallies, at
which Fidel Castro has
delivered speeches about
the state of Cuba and
its international
relations.
Last year the
festivities took place
in the eastern city of
Bayamo, where President
Castro spoke about the
success of a series of
social programmes
carried out in Cuba in
recent years, and
compared them with the
transition proposals for
the country made by the
U.S. government of
President George W.
Bush.
On that occasion, Castro
spoke for over two hours
and then travelled to
Holguín, a province
bordering Bayamo, to
inaugurate a series of
electric generators
worth over 50 million
dollars, which increased
the electricity
generation capacity of
the province.
Five days later, in a
written proclamation to
the people of Cuba,
Castro acknowledged that
his health had suffered
a breakdown which had
forced him to undergo "a
complicated surgical
operation," and
announced that he had
"provisionally"
delegated to Raúl Castro
his functions at the
head of the government,
the Cuban Communist
Party (PCC) and the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces (FAR).
He designated a team
made up of Vice
President Carlos Lage,
Foreign Minister Felipe
Pérez Roque, Health
Minister José Ramón
Balaguer Cabrera,
members of the Political
Bureau of the PCC José
Ramón Machado Ventura
and Esteban Lazo
Hernández, and Francisco
Soberón Valdés,
President of the Central
Bank of Cuba, to take
over other
responsibilities.
Since then the Cuban
leader has only been
seen by the Cuban people
in photographs and
videos broadcast on
state television.
However, since Mar. 29
he has written about his
ideas on national and
international affairs in
articles published by
the official press under
the heading of
Reflections from the
Commander-in-Chief.
In his latest column,
published on Tuesday,
President Castro
admitted that three
Cuban competitors and a
coach who were taking
part in the Pan American
Games in Rio de Janeiro
had defected, and said
they would become
"mercenary athletes in a
consumer society."
In his view, boxers
Guillermo Rigondeaux and
Erislandy Lara, who left
the Cuban delegation
last weekend, probably
accepted millions of
dollars from "a mafia"
that buys and promotes
Cuban boxers in Germany.
Shortly before,
gymnastics trainer
Lázaro Lamelas Ramírez
and handball player
Rafael Da Costa Capote
had also deserted.
According to an official
history of the Jul. 26
commemorations, this
Thursday's in Camagüey
will be the first such
occasion when Fidel
Castro will not be
present at the main
rally, and the third at
which the closing speech
will be delivered by his
brother Raúl, who spoke
at the celebrations in
1994 and 1997.
In 1992, the
commemoration was held
on Sept. 5, after
Castro's return from a
visit to Spain to attend
the Second Ibero-American
Summit. During that trip
he also travelled around
Spain, and for the first
time visited the house
in Galicia where his
father was born. His
father, Ángel Castro,
died in 1956.
Analysts are now
focusing their attention
on the general elections
which are to begin in
October with the
election of delegates to
the municipal
assemblies, and will
continue at an as yet
unspecified date with
elections for provincial
representatives and
deputies to the
unicameral parliament,
known as the National
Assembly.
The process is due to
finish next year, with
elections to the
National Assembly (at
present made up of 609
members) and to the
state executive bodies:
the Council of State and
the Council of
Ministers, both of which
are currently presided
over by Fidel Castro.
The Cuban leader was
elected to these offices
in 1976, when the
present institutions
were adopted, and has
been re-elected since
for successive five-year
periods.
In March, Ricardo
Alarcón, the president
of the National
Assembly, told
journalists at the
Conventions Palace that
he was sure that Fidel
Castro would be fit
enough to stand for
re-election and continue
to assume his
responsibilities.
On Mar. 16, 2003, when
he was re-elected head
of state for another
five-year mandate,
Castro surprised his
supporters by
acknowledging, in
parliament, the
fragility and transitory
nature of every human
being, reflections that
were most unusual,
coming from him:
We know that time passes
and energy fails, he
said. Perhaps the
incessant struggle
trained us for such a
long battle. I think the
secret could be the
strength of a great
ideal, endless
enthusiasm and love for
our noble cause which
has grown with every day
of life. But life has
its inexorable laws, he
added.
I promise that I will
remain with you, if you
so wish, as long as I am
aware of being useful,
and if nature does not
decide otherwise. Not a
minute less, not a
second more. Now I
understand that it was
not my destiny to come
into the world in order
to rest at the end of my
life, Fidel Castro
concluded on that
occasion. |
