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Castro could lose presidency
02/12/2007 12:08 - (SA)
Havana - A meeting of Cuban local officials on Sunday to pick National Assembly candidates could pave the way for ailing leader Fidel Castro to return to power, or signal he is permanently leaving the presidency.
The 81-year-old communist leader must become a National Assembly candidate if he wants to remain president, and recently elected municipal representatives will gather Sunday to nominate candidates to both the provincial and national assemblies.
Then, 614 deputies chosen in January 20 elections will pick from among their ranks the 31 members of the Council of State, whose president serves as the head of the one-party state.
Castro has traditionally been proposed as a parliamentary candidate by the city of Santiago de Cuba, the country's second city in the east which is considered the cradle of the Cuban revolution.
Castro has led the council and Cuba for almost five decades but "provisionally" handed over power to his younger brother and longtime number two Raul, 76, after undergoing intestinal surgery in July 2006.
Speculation has since been rife as to whether the elder Castro would return to power, at least formally.
Cuba-watchers say it is possible he might be elected deputy, but then choose not to run for re-election to the Council of State.
Still, if he is not nominated on Sunday, that could clear the way for Raul Castro to take over Cuba's presidency indefinitely.
Or, Cuba could arrange a generational hand-off of power by picking another regime heavyweight for the top job.
The country's municipal representatives are set to begin their nominating session at 10:00 (15:00 GMT) and in Santiago de Cuba, officials will put forward 25 names for the National Assembly - possibly including Castro.
No public appearance
Cuban officials insisted last year Castro would resume his full powers, but now generally steer clear from the issue, as the long-time leader continues to convalesce at an undisclosed location.
He has been prolific in writing often rambling opinion pieces published by state-run media, which officials hail as proof the veteran revolutionary is keeping up with local and world events.
But he has made no public appearance, other than on television, since his surgery in July 2006, and authorities have released only scant details of his medical condition.
"Fidel has played his historical role and he should leave it to the younger generation," one 28-year-old art student said, asking not to be named. But a customs worker, 45, insisted that Castro often has said "a revolutionary never retires."
Cuba says its electoral process, run without any campaigning, is "the most democratic in the world," an assertion ridiculed by the United States, which for decades has called for democratic reforms in Cuba.
Chavez
Cuba's state media meanwhile was devoting significant attention to a referendum on Sunday in Venezuela, where Castro's ally President Hugo Chavez is proposing to scrap term limits to allow him to run for reelection indefinitely.
In a commentary on Friday, Castro alleged that Chavez faced the risk of assassination from the United States and wrote that Cuba has forged important economic ties with Venezuela, importing 92 000 barrels of oil a day.
"The irresponsible US government does not stop for one minute to think that killing the head of state in Venezuela, or a civil war there, given its huge oil reserves, would make the world's globalized economy explode," Castro wrote in Granma, the Cuban Communist Party's newspaper.
Cuba's communist regime, with its fragile economy is propped up by Venezuelan oil and funds, has a great deal riding on how long it can count on Chavez's continued support.
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