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Cuba braces for new guard
23/02/2008 22:14 - (SA)
Havana - Cuba's National Assembly was to select on Sunday a successor to Fidel Castro, likely his brother Raul Castro, extending the Americas' only communist one-party regime in defiance of US-led calls for political opening.
Fidel Castro lashed out at Western appeals for democracy in the days leading up to the vote, which will trigger some readjustments in the political chessboard even as the transition bears the exiting leader's imprint.
"The end of one era is not the same thing as the beginning of an unsustainable system," he wrote in an editorial in official media on Friday.
"Cuba changed some time ago, and will continue on its dialectical path," stressed Castro, who remains the head of Cuba's Communist Party.
On Saturday, Castro wrote in another editorial that he was eagerly awaiting the "transcendental decision" of the National Assembly, and took a potshot at the US-based Organization of American States which does not allow Cuba to be a member due to its lack of democracy. Castro called it a "dumpster".
In an announcement made five days ahead of the Assembly vote that immediately became a milestone in Cuba's revolution, the frail, 81-year-old icon quashed speculation that he would retake the country's helm he ceded "temporarily" to Raul, now 76, on July 31, 2006, shortly after he underwent surgery.
Fidel Castro's decision paved the way for the recently elected Assembly to probably designate Raul Castro to head the 31-member Council of State for the next five years and fill his brother's shoes officially as Cuba's president.
Yet the communist legislature also could choose to bring a younger generation to power, however, with Vice President Carlos Lage, 56, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, 42, mentioned as possible heads of state.
After years in Fidel's charismatic shadow as Cuba's number two and defence minister, Raul would face massive challenges if selected: dismantling a monolithic leadership, preparing the transition to a newer generation in power, reforming the economy and resolving domestic problems.
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