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Fidel will 'remain on top'
25/02/2008 16:06 - (SA)
Madrid - Cuba will remain in Fidel Castro's shadow despite his brother Raul being elected president over the weekend by the island's parliament, Spanish media said on Monday.
"The old guard resists in Cuba," wrote top-selling left-wing daily El Pais, which added in an editorial that Fidel would "remain on top".
The newspaper said the election of former health minister and hardliner Jose Ramon Machado, 77, to the number two spot was "Fidel Castro's will".
In a widely expected move, Cuba's parliament on Sunday elected Raul, 76, president after nearly five decades of rule by his brother Fidel.
The vote came just days after Fidel Castro announced he was retiring due to health reasons.
In his first words as president, Raul Castro promised to consult with his ailing bother on all major decisions of state.
Conservative daily ABC said Fidel had "buried all attempts at change."
"Nothing which has happened up until now differs from the scenario which Fidel Castro has prepared for his own succession and no sign can be interpreted as announcing a political opening," the newspaper added.
"Fidel is going so as to stay," wrote right-wing daily newspaper La Razon which was the only newspaper to dedicate its front page to the issue.
Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia said "the generational change which many had supposed would happen did not take place" while left-wing newspaper Publico said the "usual orthodox politicians remained in power".
Cuba was a Spanish colony for almost 400 years, and the Spanish government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has led moves within the EU to defrost relations with the communist regime in Cuba, after Havana released a group of political dissidents from prison.
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