Fidel Castro has resigned as Cuba’s president, ending forty-nine years as Head of State. Fidel has been in rule since 1959 when he led the overthrow of Batista, the U.S.-backed dictatorship.
Due to his ailing health, the eighty-one-year-old Fidel recently wrote in a statement: “It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not a physical condition to offer”.
Fidel resigning came as no surprise. The likelihood of Fidel Castro returning after an extended health leave was close to none. However, questions have been buzzing in public debates and the media. What will happen after Fidel Castro (the longest ruling President in the world)? Some say: not much, as long as Fidel is alive he will continue to dictate Cuba from his sickbed. Others predict a reform process of the political system.
The questions linger on what we do know: Raúl Castro is ‘happening’ after Fidel Castro. Last week, the Cuban National Assembly selected Fidel’s younger brother, the seventy-six-year-old Rául, as the new president of Cuba. José Ramón Machado, an old veteran of Fidel’s Sierra, was elected vice president. Fidel remains chief of the Communist Party.
It seems that Fidel lingers on too. Raúl Castro, who has been running a caretaker government since Fidel fell ill in July 2006, said to the National Assembly that he would continue to consult his brother on political matters.
“I assume the responsibility that you have given to me with the conviction that the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution is only one person. Fidel is Fidel. We all know that Fidel cannot be replaced, and the people will continue their work when he is not here physically.”
Even though Fidel’s resignation is described as one of the most important political events during Cuba’s last 50 years, it does not mean a dramatic or swift change of the political system.
As long as Fidel is showing signs of life, he will “cast his shadow” on Cuba’s future. So it appears, coming from Rigberto Cerceller, leader of the NGO network “Cuba Democracia ¡Ya!” (Cuba Democracy Now).
Other observers state that Cuba, in many ways, is headed towards a process of change. Carlos Salas Lind, writing on Cuba in Chilean newspapers, predicts “reforms in Cuban tempo”. He says that, even though there will be no great and fast political shift, it is interesting to observe the changes that are already happening in Cuba. The new Cuban leadership is taking new forms, he says.
Carlos Salas Lind points out that Raúl Castro has encouraged debate in the Communist Party. It seems that the encouragement has been taken seriously. A couple of weeks ago, students from the University of Havana held a demonstration in which they, publicly, criticized the political conditions in Cuba. Lind says that this signifies new times.
“John McCain, Republican presidential frontrunner, has already criticized Barack Obama for saying he would be willing to meet with Raúl Castro.”
There is no doubt that Fidel Castro, as chief of the Communist Party, will continue to have a say in Cuban politics. Raúl Castro’s reform may not be very significant either. However, Raúl Castro has opened the door for some changes, says Lind.
Another thing to consider when it comes to Fidel’s resignation is the role of the U.S. and whether increased U.S. intervention will become a greater possibility. This is worrying for Cuba, which has, for more than a century, been subject to American politics of short-vision and panic.
In an American led war in 1898, U.S. raveled out the leftovers of the Spanish imperia and incorporated Cuba into the States. Cuba went from one military dictatorship to another with pauses for farce-like elections.
After General Batista’s military coup in 1952, Cuba was dealt by American mafias, which supplied Batista’s private account with a part of the profits. On New Year’s day 1959, Fidel Castro and a small guerilla army succeeded in casting Batista into exile.
The U.S. was terrified. The Marxist Trojan horse had taken over the back yard. When Castro started nationalizing and flirting with the Soviet, the U.S. started a war of invasions, plots and economic embargos on Cuba. This still continues.
And now? In the year of U.S. elections, American politicians may attempt to exceed each other in acting against ‘the backyard’. John McCain, Republican presidential frontrunner, has already criticized Barack Obama for saying he would be willing to meet with Raúl Castro.
“Raúl, in many ways, has a worse record than Fidel. And again, I think it’s naive to think that you can sit down and have unconditional talks with a person who is part of a government that has been a state sponsor of terrorism, not only in the hemisphere, but throughout the world.”
Nonetheless, it is a worrying thought that inner-Cuban political decisions are becoming part of the American elections, in which a right-wing is happy to again use Cuba as target.
Behind the scenes, some essential political questions are raised. What will happen after Fidel? And who should form the future of Cuba? Is Raúl Castro just another Fidel Castro?
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Naja Graugaard
