Cuba prepares for post-Chávez era

The Cuban government takes it for granted that Hugo Chávez will die soon. A diplomat posted to Cuba told me so, reciting some well-known verses by Martí: “The palace is in mourning and on the throne the King weeps; / the King’s son has died, / the King has lost his son.”

That hasn’t yet happened. The King’s son is still alive, though very damaged, but Raúl and a disconsolate Fidel view his death as an inevitable fact. To Fidel, it’s a political catastrophe.

Chávez was his heir in the task of struggling against “Yankee imperialism” and creating a glorious little world, as collectivist and authoritarian as the one that sank after Gorbachev’s “betrayal” more than 20 years ago.

Raúl was useless as an heir. He lacked the ability to dream, something that fills the incendiary brain of revolutionaries. Raúl was much too pragmatic, much too stuck to reality, that strange and contemptible thing.

More at: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/05/2677262/cuba-prepares-for-post-chavez.html