WP: Raul Castro ousts top Cubans loyal to Fidel Castro

Source: Washington Post

Raul Castro ousts top Cubans loyal to Fidel Castro

By WILL WEISSERT
The Associated Press
Monday, March 2, 2009; 9:27 PM

HAVANA -- President Raul Castro abruptly ousted some of Cuba's most powerful officials Monday, remaking the government in the biggest shakeup since he took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro a year ago. The changes replaced some key Fidel loyalists, including the longtime foreign minister, with men closer to Raul. They also reduced the enormous powers of a vice president credited with saving Cuba's economy after the fall of the Soviet Union.

But analysts saw no immediate indication that the changes are related to hopes for closer U.S.-Cuban ties now that both countries have new presidents.

Several ministries were consolidated in response to President Raul Castro's calls for a "more compact and functional structure" for the often unwieldy communist bureaucracy that oversees nearly all public activity on the island.

The most sweeping leadership shakeup in years was dropped on Cubans almost as an afterthought _ at the end of the midday news, following the weather and sports.

-snip-



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030201315.html?hpid%3Dmoreheadlines&sub=AR

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WP requires a username/PW to view .... I will look for another link .... (Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a6.hp5_bLHlw&refer=latin_america )

This story marks a significant change in Cuba's trajectory ....

Much of the other is probably window dressing to cover up the Foreign Minister change. I expect that there have been contacts between Washington and Cuba and this move was the first required step towards a thaw in relations between the 2 countries. Time will tell.

Hope the current administration seizes this as the opportunity to normalize our relationships with Cuba.

Vietnam, where we lost 50,000 people while killing 2 million of them, but could never normalize relations with Cuba where we lost a couple casinos and a few sugar plantations. The level of enmity is, and always has been, WAY out of proportion to the initial disagreement.

And this is larded with speculation.

R Castro replaced several key bureaucrats, reorganized several departments. There is no indication if this has anything to do with thawing relations with the US.

Where is the 'speculation'?

It's presented as a power struggle even though there are no apparent signs of struggle, and it is most unlikely that Fidel and Raul have any dispute with each other. Is Raul "ousting" Fidel "loyalists", or is he giving some civil servants some deserved time off, or trying to inject new blood? Where is the evidence that there are "Fidel loyalists" and that their relationship to Raul is adversarial? There is none. There is no evidence they had any objection to the changes. It's all bullshit.

Was there a power struggle here in NC when Bev Purdue replaced Mike Easley's appointees? They are both Democratic governors, with basically the same positions, though Bev is somewhat more liberal than Easley. She's in charge now, and wants the state government to reflect HER preferences.

Same thing. It's just further evidence that Fidel's era is over.

But don't let me change your mind. I'm sure WaPo has "analysts" that are deeply knowledgeable about the long-standing rivalry between the two Castro brothers. Raul was Minister of the Cuban Armed Forces from 1959 to 2008, when Fidel handed him the Presidency. If you are an evil dictator, the first rule is that you don't want anybody heading the armed forces that you have "issues" with. It's just fatuous to think that there is anything contentious about these changes. It makes far more sense to attribute them to recent improvements in Cuba's "international environment".

Castro: 2 officials undone by 'honey of power'


HAVANA – Fidel Castro said Tuesday he was consulted on the sweeping leadership changes by his brother Raul's government and that two of the ousted officials had been seduced by "the honey of power."

The article published on a government Web site gave the first official hint of why at least two powerful officials were removed in the abrupt shakeup — Cuba's largest in decades.

The move was widely seen as Raul Castro putting his personal stamp on the government he inherited from Fidel Castro a year ago. But the elder brother wrote that he had been consulted about the changes and said the "two most mentioned" had been seduced by "the honey of power."

Though he did not name them, press accounts focused on the removal of Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and the removal of Vice President Carlos Lage from his post as Cabinet secretary. Twenty other officials shifted, removed or promoted.

Castro did not describe what offenses the men might have committed, but said their dismissal "was absolutely not for a lack of personal valor."

"There was another reason. The honey of power, for which they had not sacrificed at all, awoke in them ambitions that led to an undignified role," he wrote.

Castro also dismissed suggestions that the changes showed a shift from "'Fidel's men' to 'Raul's men.'"

"The new ministers who were just named were consulted with me, even though there was no law requiring those who named them to do that," Castro wrote

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_leadership_shakeup;_ylt=AkpsYk3qUllhpXYVEQaQ6m.3IxIF

Oh, two other officials, not the president for life family. They would NEVER be undone by the "honey of power". I mean given how long Fidel has been in power, he must've hated it. And handing over power to Raul shows that he trusts the people to choose who to run the country. :P

This isn't a factional struggle occurring as portrayed by the US media. There are different ideas, but not this sort of factional struggle. Raul Castro isn't going to be the Deng Xiaoping or the Gorbachev of Cuba, and especially not the latter.