Fidel Castro's Re-emergence Raises Questions About His Role
By MARC FRANK
Havana, Cuba August 12, 2010—
Fidel Castro marks his 84th birthday on Friday after a spate of public
appearances and apocalyptic warnings of nuclear war and environmental
disaster that have catapulted him back onto center stage in Cuba and
garnered him headlines outside the Communist-run Caribbean island.
The Cuban public, by and large, has welcomed their Commandante back
after four years of seclusion with the warmth and sympathy one might
bestow on an ailing, but wise grandfather home after a prolonged
hospital stay, but in no position any longer to play head of the household.
"I think Fidel is acting intelligently, like he always has," Gladis
Ulloa said in a telephone interview from Eastern Santiago de Cuba. "He
has an important role to play by alerting the world to tragedies ahead
while (his brother, President Raul Castro) governs. I do not believe
that one role contradicts the other," the state worker said.
Other Cubans, particularly young people in Havana, shrug Castro off as
they enjoy their summer vacation. And some opponents heap scorn upon him.
"The stuttering old man with quivering hands was a shadow of the
Greek-profiled military leader who, while a million voices chanted his
name in the plaza, pardoned lives, announced executions, proclaimed laws
that no one had been consulted on and declared the right of
revolutionaries to make revolution," wrote dissident blogger Yoani
Sanchez in the Washington Post.
Cubans, with their wry sense of humour, have not spared the man that
dominated the country for half a century.
As one joke making the rounds has it, Castro is lying on his death bed
with his brother Raul at his side and Cubans at the window chanting, "
Fidel, Fidel."
"What are those people doing outside?" Fidel asks.
"Saying farewell," Raul responds.
"Oh, where are they all going?" asks Fidel.
For the last six weeks, foreign diplomats and experts have scratched
their heads as state media broadcast reports on Fidel's emergence from
seclusion to preach his dire views on the "twin tragedies" of war and
the environment facing humanity.
Castro stepped aside in 2006 to undergo intestinal surgery and then
suffered complications, forcing him to resign the presidency two years
later in favour of his brother Raul, who is 79. Since then, while he
retained his position as First Secretary of the Communist Party the
elder Castro had only met with occasional guests at his home, written
essays and appeared sporadically in photographs and video clips.
In contrast, on Saturday images of a relatively healthy and lucid Castro
dressed in military olive green, flashed across television screens the
world over when he delivered a short televised speech before the
National Assembly, the diplomatic corps and foreign journalists. He then
took questions for an hour.
Fideal Castro's Re-Emergence Puzzles Diplomats
In his address, Castro called on President Barack Obama not to inspect
Iranian cargo ships beginning in September, as called for in United
Nations sanctions aimed at controlling that country's nuclear
activities. Castro predicted Iran would respond by sinking the U.S.
fleet, sparking a nuclear war.
Speculation over who is calling the shots in secretive Havana has raged
among foreign experts and government officials.
"My role is to say what is happening so that others can decide what to
do. You have to understand that the comrades (in the government) are not
people I can lead by the finger or hand. What I want is that they think
things over," Castro said of his current activities during a Sunday TV
interview with Venezuela's Telesur.
A Communist party insider said Castro was strengthening his brother's
government at a difficult moment.
"Fidel's presence has two objectives: to back Raul's efforts to
modernize the economy by showing he is still very much around and
therefore approves, and to counter the negative international media
coverage we received over human rights this year by shifting attention
to the United State's two soft spots, war and the environment," he said.
Raul Castro's efforts to loosen the state's grip on the economy has met
stiff bureaucratic resistance. And his government suffered foreign
condemnation earlier this year following the death of an imprisoned
dissident after a long hunger strike. In a deal last month with the
Roman Catholic Church, the government agreed to release 52 political
prisoners.
Most observers agree Fidel Castro is in no condition to govern any
longer and they note he has not spoken or written about domestic affairs
in 18 months. But they disagree on whether this means he supports or
opposes Raul Castro's efforts to foster more public discussion and allow
more private initiative.
"History indicates that Fidel Castro remains very much in command, that
no key decision will be adopted without his consent, slowing down the
much needed structural reforms and conceptual changes started by his
brother," said Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban intelligence officer
who defected in the early 1990s and now teaches in Florida.
Bert Hoffmann, Senior Research Fellow for Latin American studies at the
German Institute of Global and Area Studies expressed a different view.
"Fidel's staged performances do not signal his return to power. Instead,
his remarks on international issues rather underscore his backing for
Raúl's policies. From leader, Fidel has transformed into legitimator,"
he said.
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