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Tuesday February 19, 2008
Facts about Cuba's Fidel Castro
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's Fidel Castro announced his retirement on Tuesday after almost half a century as leader of his country.
Here are some facts about him:
 | Cuba's President Fidel Castro looks at the crowd before delivering his second speech of the day in Pedernales in this July 26, 2006 file photo.(REUTERS/Claudia Daut)
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* Fidel Castro was the world's third longest-serving head of state,after Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the King of Thailand. He was notbeen seen in public since illness forced him to hand over day-to-daycontrol of the country to his brother Raul Castro in July 2006.
* Castro holds the Guinness Book of Records title for the longestspeech ever delivered at the United Nations: 4 hours and 29 minutes, onSept. 29, 1960. His longest speech on record in Cuba was 7 hours and 10minutes in 1986 at the III Communist Party Congress in Havana.
* Castro claims he survived 634 attempts on his life, mainlymasterminded by the Central Intelligence Agency. They allegedlyincluded poison pills, a toxic cigar, exploding mollusks, and achemically-tainted diving suit as well as powder to make his beard fallout so as to undermine his popularity.
* Despite the CIA plots, a U.S.-backed exile invasion at the Bay ofPigs and four and a half decades of economic sanctions, Castrooutlasted nine U.S. presidents, from Eisenhower to Clinton, and facedincreased hostility under President George W. Bush, who tightenedenforcement of financial sanctions and a travel ban.
* Castro, once a cigar-chomping guerrilla fighter, gave up cigars in1985. Years later he summed up the harm of smoking tobacco by saying:"The best thing you can do with this box of cigars is to give them toyour enemy."
* Castro has at least eight children. His eldest son Fidel CastroDiaz-Balart, who is the image of his father and is known as Fidelito,is a Soviet-trained nuclear scientist. Daughter Alina Fernandez, theresult of an affair with a Havana socialite when Castro was undergroundin the 1950s, escaped from Cuba disguised as a tourist in 1993 and is avocal critic of her father's rule from her Miami radio program. Castrohas five sons with his second wife Dalia Soto. Their names all beginwith A. The youngest, Antonio, is the national baseball team's doctor.
* One of Castro's pet projects was a cow called Ubre Blanca, or"White Udder", that produced prodigious quantities of milk and became apropaganda tool for Cuba's collectivized agriculture in the 1980s. UbreBlanca is in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest milk yield bya cow in one day: 110 liters.
[ Last edited by amazed at 15-11-2008 03:08 PM ] |
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Tuesday February 19, 2008
Fidel Castro, 20th century revolutionary
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Fidel Castro, who built a communist state on thedoorstep of the United States from a guerrilla uprising and defiedattempts to oust him by 10 U.S. presidents, retired on Tuesday afteralmost half a century at Cuba's helm.
 | Cubanleader Fidel Castro poses in this photo taken by Brazilian PresidentLuiz Inacio Lula da Silva during their meeting in Havana January 15,2008. (REUTERS/Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva/CubaVision TV/Handout)
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The bearded revolutionary, whose cigar-smoking guerrillas oustedU.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, has not appeared inpublic for 19 months since emergency intestinal surgery forced him tohand over power to brother Raul Castro on July 31, 2006.
Castro, 81, has kept himself in the minds of Cubans, however,through a prolific flow of sick bed articles that ranged fromdenunciations of the U.S. war in Iraq to claiming that U.S. capitalismthreatens the survival of humanity.
He said on Tuesday he would not return to lead his country, closing one chapter of the 20th century.
Vilified by opponents as a totalitarian dictator, Castro is admiredin many Third World nations for standing up to the United States andproviding free education and health care.
The Jesuit-educated lawyer and charismatic orator sought totransform Cuba into an egalitarian society and achieved health andliteracy levels on a par with industrialized nations.
But critics, led by the United States and the hundreds of thousandsof Cubans who left to live abroad, maintained that he turned theCaribbean island into a police state and his rejection of freeenterprise ruined the economy.
Castro survived a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs,assassination attempts, Washington's longest trade embargo and thecollapse of the Soviet Union that for three decades supplied Cuba witheverything from guns to oil and butter.
"I'm really happy to reach 80. I never expected it, not least havinga neighbor -- the greatest power in the world -- trying to kill meevery day," he said on July 21, 2006 at a summit of South Americanpresidents in Argentina, where crowds greeted him like a rock star.
Anti-globalization youths the world over saw the leftist firebrandas a hero along with revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara, hisArgentine-born comrade-in-arms.
Castro caught the imagination of the left by pitting his smallcountry against the United States and declaring Cuba a Marxist stateeven before the Berlin Wall was erected.
His brazen risk-taking took the world to the brink of nuclear war in1962 when he allowed Moscow to place ballistic missiles in Cuba,leading to a 13-day stand-off between President John F. Kennedy andSoviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in one of the most dangerous episodesof the Cold War.
Castro supported guerrilla groups in Latin America and sent morethan 350,000 Cubans troops to fight in Angola, where they defeatedSouth African forces, leading to the independence of Namibia andhastening the end of apartheid.
POST-SOVIET CRISIS
But the loss of billions of dollars in subsidies from Moscow afterthe Soviet collapse plunged Cuba into severe economic crisis in theearly 1990s.
Social gains were undermined and widespread hardship soweddiscontent that triggered a renewed exodus of tens of thousands ofrafters to Florida -- just 90 miles (145 km) away -- in search of abetter life.
The crisis forced Castro to grudgingly open up Cuba to foreigninvestment and tourism, and legalize the currency of his enemy, theU.S. dollar.
In the last years of his rule, Castro tried to grapple with some ofCuba's glaring failures -- decrepit housing, poor transport, poweroutages and corruption -- while denying his critics a voice in theWest's last communist society.
Castro won friends by sending 30,000 Cuban doctors abroad to treatthe poor, mainly in Venezuela, but also as far afield as Pakistan,Indonesia and East Timor, while training thousands of doctors fromdeveloping counties in Cuba free of charge.
Cuba won annual votes condemning the U.S. embargo at the United Nations backed by all but a handful of U.S. allies.
Castro, who gave up smoking cigars in 1985, stamped his image onhistory by thumping the lectern during lengthy tirades againstimperialism and capitalism or striding at the head of mass marches inhis trademark military fatigues.
Cubans call him simply "Fidel." Seventy-percent of them were bornafter 1959 and have known no other leader. Until he fell ill, Castrowas omnipresent in their lives through hours-long speeches and nonstoppublic activity, but he has not allowed statues of himself or streetsnamed after him.
His pace slowed after fracturing a knee in a serious tumble after a speech in October 2004 seen live on television.
In 2006, the health of the man who said he had survived 638assassination plots caved in. He underwent life-threatening operationsto stop intestinal bleeding and infection. Pictures showed the oncerobust leader had lost weight and become gaunt and shuffling.
Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926, in Biran in eastern Cuba, the sonof a Spanish immigrant who became a landowner. His family's farm wasthe first land Castro ordered confiscated by the state after hisrevolution.
"History will absolve me," Castro declared during his trial for anear-suicidal assault on July 26, 1953 on the Moncada barracks in theeastern city of Santiago, which launched his revolutionary movement.
In December, 1956, he returned from exile in Mexico on a overcrowdedyacht called the "Granma" and landed with 81 followers in eastern Cuba.They were ambushed and only 12 made it to the rugged Sierra Maestramountains with seven rifles.
The ragtag band of rebels grew into a guerrilla force of severalthousand that swept down from the hills in 1958 to drive the dictatorBatista from Cuba on New Year's Day 1959.
aku bila sebut pasal fidel castro terus terus tingat cigar dia  |
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Tuesday February 19, 2008
Fidel Castro says he won't return as Cuba's leader
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesdaythat he will not return to lead the country as president orcommander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seizedpower in an armed revolution.
 | Cuba'sleader Fidel Castro gestures during an interview on state television inHavana in this June 5, 2007 file photo. (REUTERS/Government TV/Handout)
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Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public for almost 19 months,said in a statement to the country that he would not seek a newpresidential term when the National Assembly meets on Feb. 24.
"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recentdays of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to youthat I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept-- the positions of President of Council of State and Commander inChief," Castro said in the statement published on the Web site of theCommunist Party's Granma newspaper.
The National Assembly or legislature is expected to nominate hisbrother and designated successor Raul Castro, 76, as president. RaulCastro has been running the country since emergency surgery to stopintestinal bleeding forced Castro to delegate power on July 31, 2006.
The title of "Comandante en Jefe" or commander-in-chief, was createdfor Castro in 1958 as overall leader of the guerrilla forces that sweptdown from the mountains of eastern Cuba to overthrow U.S.-backeddictator Fulgencio Batista.
Castro's retirement draws the curtain on a political career thatspanned the Cold War and survived U.S. enmity, CIA assassinationattempts and the demise of Soviet bloc Communism.
A charismatic leader famous for his long speeches delivered in hisgreen military fatigues, Castro is admired in the Third World forstanding up to the United States but considered by his opponents atyrant who suppressed freedom.
His illness and departure from Cuba's helm have raised doubts about the future of the Western Hemisphere's only communist state.
REVOLUTION CAN 'COUNT ON' OTHERS
"Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the oldguard and others who were very young in the early stages of theprocess," Castro said in his statement.
"They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement," he said.
His announcement was issued hours before dawn. The streets of Havanawere empty and news of Castro's retirement from politics had notreached Cubans yet by radio or the printed edition of Granma.
"It was logical for Fidel to quit because he has been saying that heis not well," said a musician who was leaving a cabaret. "But nothingwill change until the government makes the economic reforms that Cubaneeds," he said.
U.S. President George W. Bush, in Rwanda as part of a trip toAfrica, had no immediate comment on Castro's plans to step down, WhiteHouse spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Johndroe said "the president was informed" about the developmentswith Castro and that he would receive a briefing later. Washington hasmaintained a more than four-decades long economic embargo against Cubato try to isolate Castro.
Castro has been seen only in pictures and video film since he handedover power provisionally to his brother, looking gaunt and frail. Hishealth improved enough a year ago to allow him to keep in the publicmind writing reams of articles published by Cuba's state press.
"This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as asoldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under theheading of 'Reflections by comrade Fidel.' It will be just anotherweapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall becareful," Castro said in Tuesday's message.
Castro could remain politically influential as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party and elder statesman.
Raul Castro, Cuba's long-standing defense minister, has run raisedexpectations of economic reforms to improve the daily lot of Cubanssince standing in for his brother, but he has yet to deliver.
Patutnya dah lama kena oust tu, bye bye fidel.. about time cuban get some freedom !! |
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ketabahan luar biasa dimiliki castro ketika bertahun tahun berkonflik dengan amerika....
aku tertanya tanya ...adakah dia juga sorang highlander...tunggu penjelasan dari ho7 |
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Castro, akhirnya letak jawatan
HAVANA 19 Feb. |
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Reply #5 amazed's post
Dia ni sama mcm LKY gak...... 
Cuma LKY pengampu Amerika...  |
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Erm... Aku ske filem yg dibuat berdasarkan idup Fidel ni. Ade kat HBO dulu. Dan baru ku tau, Chevo Guerrera tu bes fren Castro... |
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Reply #11 nik2121's post
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Memang depa tu bes fren sama2 buat puak guerilla (against gov't) - ( masa kecik aku sebut GORILLA) |
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10 kisah menarik Fidel Castro
MARADONA menemui Castro pada 27 Oktober 2007. - REUTERS
PEMIMPIN Cuba yang sedang sakit, Fidel Castro semalam mengumumkanpersaraannya sebagai Presiden negara berkenaan selepas 49 tahunberkuasa sekali gus mencipta rekod menjadi pemimpin sebuah kerajaanpaling lama berkuasa di dunia.
Ikon komunis dan gerila revolusi berumur 81 tahun itu sebelum inimenyerahkan sementara kuasa kepada adiknya, Raul pada 31 Julai 2006selepas beliau jatuh sakit.
Sejak itu, Castro tidak pernah muncul di tempat awam dan hanyamembuat kemunculan melalui gambar, rakaman video sekali gus mencetuskankhabar angin berhubung tahap kesihatan beliau.
Castro tidak menyatakan siapa yang bakal menggantikan tempat beliautetapi beberapa penganalisis berpendapat, Raul, 76, adalah calon yangpaling sesuai.
Castro berkuasa di Cuba yang mempunyai keluasan 110,861 kilometerpersegi itu pada 1 Januari 1959 apabila gerila pemberontak yangdipimpinnya berjaya menggulingkan diktator ketika itu, FulgencioBatista.
Sepanjang memerintah Castro, beliau mengubah negara Cuba yangmempunyai pendapatan per kapita AS$4,500 (RM14,505) setahun itu sebagaipengkritik dan seteru utama Amerika Syarikat (AS).
Bagaimanapun, kehidupan penuh warna-warni pemimpin itu seringmenjadi tajuk utama media di seluruh dunia tidak kira dalam bidangpolitik, hiburan, sukan serta fesyen.
Di bawah ini disenaraikan beberapa perkara menarik dan aneh pemimpin itu yang pernah menarik perhatian penduduk dunia.
Falsafahnya
Pada 2001, sebuah kumpulan rock dari Wales, Manic Street Preachersmenjadi ahli muzik pertama dari Barat mengadakan konsert di Cuba dalamtempoh 20 tahun.
Sebelum konsert itu berlangsung, anggota kumpulan itu bertemu denganCastro dan mereka memberi amaran kepada pemimpin itu bahawa muzik yangbakal mereka mainkan mungkin terlalu bising.
Bagaimanapun, pemimpin itu membalas: 揃unyi peperangan adalah lebih bising |
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dia ni mmg tentera sejati kan? |
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Berakhirnya politik Castro
Apa jua pandangan masyarakat dunia terhadapnya, pemilik namapenuh Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz ini tidak diragui lagi sebagai salahseorang ikon politik paling berpengaruh pada abad ke-20.
FIDEL CASTRO akan tetap kekal dalam ingatan seluruh
rakyat Cuba sebagai pemimpin yang berani menentang Amerika Syarikat.
PENGUMUMAN persaraan pemimpin Cuba, Fidel Castro pada 19 Februari lalu mengundang pelbagai reaksi dari seluruh masyarakat dunia.
Bagi seteru utamanya, Amerika Syarikat (AS), sudah pasti beritatersebut menjadi satu khabar paling gembira buat mereka yang selama inimengharapkan kejatuhan Castro.
Jika tidak mana mungkin Agensi Perisikan Pusat (CIA) negara UncleSam itu pernah beberapa kali melakukan cubaan bunuh terhadap ikonkomunis dan gerila revolusi yang kini berusia 81 tahun itu.
Anak ketiga kepada pasangan Angel Castro Argiz dan Lina Ruz Gonzalezitu dilahirkan pada 13 Ogos 1926 di sebuah ladang tanaman tebu untukindustri gula di Biran, berhampiran Mayari dalam wilayah Holguin ataukini dikenali sebagai Oriente, Cuba.
Karier politik Castro bermula pada tahun 1945 apabila dia memasukisekolah undang-undang di Universiti Havana. Dia kemudian melibatkandiri dalam pergerakan pelajar di universiti tersebut yang merupakanrefleksi daripada situasi bergolak politik di Cuba sewaktu era tersebut.
Sejak itu, Castro mula menapak selangkah demi selangkah dalam arenapolitik di Cuba sehinggalah dia berkuasa secara rasmi pada 1 Januari1959 apabila gerila pemberontak di bawah pimpinannya berjayamenggulingkan pemerintahan diktator, Fulgencio Batista ketika itu.
Castro kemudian dilantik sebagai Perdana Menteri Cuba pada 13Februari 1959 dan memegang tampuk pemerintahan negara selama 49 tahun.Ini satu tempoh paling lama sebagai pemimpin kerajaan yang berkuasa didunia.
Terkenal sebagai pemimpin yang mempunyai personaliti tersendiridengan imej bermisai dan berjanggut serta menghisap cerut, Castro jugadianggap sebagai seorang yang berani apabila secara terang-teranganmenyatakan tentangan terhadap AS dan sistem kapitalis negara itu.
Malah sepanjang kariernya, Castro berjaya mematahkan usaha 10pentadbiran AS untuk menjatuhkannya termasuk beberapa percubaanmembunuhnya.
Castro juga merupakan seorang pemimpin berkarisma yang terkenalkerana gemar menyampaikan ucapan yang panjang lebar. Beliau bolehberbangga kerana memegang rekod dunia (Guinness Book of Records) bagiucapan paling lama ketika menghadiri perhimpunan PertubuhanBangsa-bangsa Bersatu (PBB) di mana beliau berucap selama 4 jam 29minit pada tahun 1960.
Tetapi apa yang paling berkesan sepanjang pemerintahan Castro ialahdia mampu menyediakan kemudahan pendidikan dan penjagaan kesihatansecara percuma kepada rakyat Cuba. Ini satu pencapaian yang belumpernah dicapai oleh mana-mana negara di dunia ketika itu.
GERAKAN politik yang diterajui oleh Fidel Castro (kanan) bermula pada 1945.
Di sebalik kemasyhurannya sebagai salah seorang pemimpin yangdisegani mahupun digeruni, Castro juga mempunyai hobi dan kegemarantersendiri.
Antaranya pada tahun 1940-an, Castro pernah bekerja sebagai pelakontambahan di Hollywood dan membuat kemunculan dalam filem muzikal,Holiday in Mexico serta filem romantik komedi, Easy to Wed.
Selain itu, beliau turut berlakon dalam filem You Were NeverLovelier bersama aktor Hollywood terkenal ketika itu, Fred Astaire danRita Hayworth.
Dalam rekreasi pula, Castro adalah peminat setia sukan besbol yangmerupakan permainan paling popular di Cuba. Pemimpin yang dikagumi olehbanyak negara Dunia Ketiga ini juga boleh bermain permainan itu denganbaik.
Jika tidak, mustahil terdapat khabar angin yang menyatakan pasukanBesbol AS iaitu New York Yankees dan Washington Senators pernah cubauntuk mendapatkan khidmat beliau pada tahun 1940-an.
Di samping itu, Castro tidak ketinggalan mempunyai koleksirakan-rakan yang terkenal seperti bintang bola sepak legenda Argentina,Diego Maradona yang begitu menyanjungi pemimpin itu; model terkenal,Naomi Campbell, pengarah filem Hollywood, Steven Spielberg dan OliverStone serta Datuk Bandar London, Ken Livingstone.
Dalam hubungan kekeluargaan, Castro mempunyai seorang anak lelakidengan isteri pertamanya, Mirta Diaz-Balart yang diberi nama FidelFidelito Castro Diaz-Balart. Namun Castro dan Diaz-Balart bercerai padatahun 1955.
Selain itu, Castro turut mempunyai lima orang anak lelaki hasilperkahwinan dengan isteri keduanya, Dalia Soto del Valle iaitu Alexis,Alexander, Alejandro, Antonio dan Angel.
Ketika masih berkahwin dengan Mirta, Castro telah menjalin hubungansulit dengan Naty Revuelta hingga mempunyai seorang anak luar nikahbernama Alina Fernandez-Revuelta.
Persaraan Castro ini sekali gus melabuhkan tirai bagi karierpolitiknya yang bermula sejak zaman Perang Dingin dan melepasi erakejatuhan rejim komunis Kesatuan Soviet.
Namun apa yang pasti, figura bernama Fidel Castro ini akan tetapkekal dalam ingatan seluruh rakyat Cuba khususnya dan masyarakat duniaamnya sebagai tokoh revolusi abad ke-20 yang berjaya membangunkansebuah negara komunis yang berjiran dengan AS. - Agensi |
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Originally posted by snowflakes at 21-2-2008 11:46 AM 
dia ni mmg tentera sejati kan?
apa maksud ko? kalu dari segi proper training nak jadi tentera aku rasa tak... dia ni study law kat havana....so destined polician la tu.. mungkin aku silap lak.. |
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aku suker aaa dia ni.. berjuang utk rakyat.. tp sayangnya kurang idea utk membangunkan negara.. |
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kononnya, die ni keturunan golongn conversos-yahudi yg dipaksa memeluk kristian suatu ketika dulu.. |
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Monday February 25, 2008 Fidel Castro passes Cuba reins to his brother
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Raul Castro took over from his brother Fidel Castro as Cuban president on Sunday, ending the rule of the bearded rebel who defied the United States for five decades but vowing to continue his communist revolution.
 | People walk past a photograph of Cuba's newly elected President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel in Havana February 24, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)
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A former hardliner feared for his ruthlessness but who has adopted a more moderate tone in recent years, Raul Castro, 76, nodded and smiled as legislators applauded his selection by the rubber-stamp National Assembly.
He is expected to pursue limited economic reforms to tackle food shortages and poor living standards but in a sign that abrupt or major change is unlikely, Communist Party ideologue Jose Ramon Machado Ventura was named to the No. 2 job of first vice president.
In his first speech as president, Raul Castro said he would continue to consult his older brother on important issues.
"The mandate of this legislature is clear ... to continue strengthening the revolution at a historic moment," he said.
Fidel Castro, 81, stepped down Tuesday due to ill health, ending his long rule of the West's last communist state.
He overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution at the height of the Cold War and then survived assassination attempts, a CIA-backed invasion, the Soviet Union's collapse and a U.S. economic embargo to rule for almost half a century.
He won support at home by providing health and education services for all Cubans but he also jailed his opponents and critics accuse him of imposing a dictatorship.
Raul Castro said he was accepting the presidency on the condition that his brother continued to be the "commander in chief of the revolution" -- a title created for him during his guerrilla uprising. "Fidel is Fidel. Fidel is irreplaceable."
Raul Castro lacks the oratorical flair of his brother, but he has encouraged ordinary Cubans in the last 19 months to air concerns over the economy, raising hopes of modest reforms.
The U.S. government has dubbed Raul Castro "Fidel Lite" and dismisses the leadership change as the handing of power from one dictator to another.
"If you look at the nature of the people in charge, this is the Old Guard, it's the hard line and there is no reason for us to feel a sense of optimism for the Cuban people," U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told Reuters on Sunday.
CHANGE FOR SURVIVAL
The appointment of Machado, a member of Raul Castro's inner circle, suggested that change would be subtle.
"This is about signaling continuity externally and internally," said Julia Sweig, an expert on Cuba at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington, although she said Cuba's leaders are well aware they need to address food shortages and other problems.
Jose Oro, a former director of Cuba's Mining and Geology Department who fled to the United States in 1991, said Raul Castro might seek "a kind of arrangement" with Washington to open the door to more trade and tourism now that Cold War rivalries have eased.
"He knows that Cuba is a fifth rate issue (in the United States)," Oro said. "Today the Oscar awards are more important than his election as president in Cuba."
In the ramshackle streets of old Havana, some residents huddled around radios on Sunday but others, more concerned with coping with day-to-day economic challenges than with politics, went about their daily business, shopping for fruit and vegetables or playing dominoes on the sidewalk.
"With Raul, people hope the economy will improve. It won't happen quickly but maybe within 10 years the economy could stabilize," said Jorge, 42, an electrician who asked not to be fully identified.
Cuban exiles in Miami, the heartland of opposition to the Castro brothers, were not surprised at the appointments.
"It's once more depriving the Cuban people of choosing their destiny," said Ninoska Perez of the Cuban Liberty Council, a hardline anti-Castro group.
Raul Castro has led Cuba since July 2006 when his brother provisionally handed over power after intestinal surgery.
A leftist icon in his army fatigues, cap and beard but oppressor of his people to his enemies, Fidel Castro has been reduced by illness to a shuffling old man.
He has not been seen in public since his surgery, but will continue to wield influence as head of the Communist Party and by writing articles in "the battle of ideas".
Cuba's main benefactor, President Hugo Chavez of oil exporter Venezuela, pledged to continue supporting Cuba, dismissing speculation he does not get on with Raul Castro.
"The international campaign has already begun to make people believe that Raul and I are not close, that things will now change. Nothing will change," said Chavez, who has pursued his own socialist revolution and become an outspoken U.S. foe. |
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Post time 19-2-2008 06:35 PM
变色卡
Author
