A ghost reappears
Fidel's return is a mixed blessing for his brother
Aug 12th 2010 | Havana
"IT WAS a surprise. A month ago I had assumed he was dead," said Hector,
an art student in Havana. He had just watched Fidel Castro speak at
Cuba's National Assembly on August 7th. It was the first appearance by
the former president on live television since he underwent intestinal
surgery in 2006. Mr Castro, who turns 84 this week, had to be helped to
his seat at the podium. In contrast to the endless diatribes of the
past, this one lasted just 11 minutes, though he stayed for an hour of
debate. His theme was his latest apocalyptic vision: that conflict
between the United States and Iran could escalate into nuclear war. At
times he was difficult to follow. But the message was clear enough.
After four years as a near-recluse, Mr Castro is back—and at a time of
unusual difficulty for the regime he created.
The speech followed a string of cameo appearances by Fidel, such as
visiting an aquarium and talking to biotechnologists. These began the
day before the announcement last month that Cuba would free 52 political
prisoners. They seemed designed to distract attention from this unusual
gesture of weakness from the Communist government, to which it resorted
to allay criticism abroad after the death of a hunger striker in February.
In that sense Fidel's reappearance and recovery is a boost for his
younger brother, Raúl, who took over from him and was formally elevated
to the presidency in 2008. But in other ways it is a complication. The
charisma gene in the Castro family missed out Raúl. Even though he has
instigated some timid reforms which Cubans welcome (such as allowing
them to own cellphones, and legally to buy building materials), he is
not a popular president. That may in part be the result of earlier
efforts by the revolution's propagandists. Since the 1960s, Cubans have
been encouraged to see Fidel as the idealist, and Raúl, long the defence
minister, as the dour enforcer.
At the National Assembly the two men sat apart, and seemed to avoid eye
contact. Fidel Castro, who is still the first secretary of the Cuban
Communist Party, made no mention of his brother, or of domestic issues.
These had been the subject of Raúl's own, longer, address to the
assembly the previous week. In it he made his most withering criticism
yet of the slumbering economy. Whilst making it clear he had no
intention of pushing the island towards capitalism, he also said he was
determined that Cuba should no longer be seen "as the only country in
the world where it is not necessary to work".
Officials have decided that around a million people, or a fifth of the
workforce, are "unproductive". They may have to seek other jobs. Raúl
said the government would make it easier for Cubans to be self-employed,
and even to employ others in small businesses. An experiment begun
earlier this year, in which hairdressers in state barbers' shops have
been allowed to work for themselves, is likely to be extended to other
parts of the economy.
In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of
its subsidies, Fidel Castro allowed foreign investment and small
businesses. But he reversed much of this opening once he found a new
benefactor in Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Raúl Castro is more pragmatic,
and as president has taken some steps to decentralise economic
decision-making to state firms and regional party leaders. Several
economists in Havana argue that Fidel, even while convalescent, has
continued to slow the pace of change.
The assumption is that the brothers have worked out a division of
labour, in which Fidel will expound on global issues and let his brother
govern. In his public appearances he has seemed fit, if doddery and
occasionally forgetful. His speech to the assembly referred to the
Soviet Union in the present tense.
Fidel has long insisted that "revolutionaries never retire". He may find
it hard to resist a return to centre stage, and that would only
undermine Raúl. "Our tragicomedy continues" whispered a waiter in a
Havana hotel.
http://www.economist.com/node/16792743?story_id=16792743&fsrc=rss
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