La Habana Cuba
24-02-2008, 21:16
President Raul Castro of Cuba
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Since Fidel announced his resignation as PResident of Cuba. Before the National Assembly Parliment meets to elect the new Council of Ministers President. And the logical choice to replace Fidel is his brother Raul Castro. Therefore this thread.
Do you think President Raul will make real economic, political and social changes in Cuba? What kind of changes you think Raul will make?
Will Raul allow more private farms. Allow small business enterprises. Allow more self work categorys that pay taxes to the state. Allow multy party elections to the Cuban National Assembly.
Raul Castro has made statements in the past for the need of economic reforms. Yet he has also made statements for the need to strengthfen Socialism or in other words the government and revolution.
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Raul's Generals and thier control of the Cuban economy :
'Raulistas' Expected to Back Raul Castro
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA — They are called "Raulistas" — top military men who manage much of Cuba's economy and populate the upper reaches of power. On Sunday, these men will likely ensure that Raul Castro not only succeeds his brother Fidel as president, but remains in firm control.
Having served in Raul Castro's Defense Ministry for decades, Cuba's active and retired military leaders today oversee key economic endeavors, from farming to the tourism, that bring in hard currency.
(enlarge photo)
Raul Castro, center, longtime Defense Minister and brother of Cuba's leader Fidel Castro, joins an anti-terrorism protest in Havana in this Tuesday, May 17, 2005 file photo. As Fidel Castro steps down as Cuba's president, Cuba's top military men seem likely to ensure that Raul Castro not only rises to the country's No. 1 spot, but remains in firm control. From left to right are Army Corps General Rigoberto Garcia Fernandez, Raul Castro's son Alejandro Castro Espin, Raul Castro's grandson Raul Rodriguez Castro who is partially covered by Raul Castro, Raul Castro, Juan Almeida and Ramiro Valdes, both Council of State members and historic rebel fighters who hold the honorary title of Commander of the Revolution. (AP Photo/Jorge Rey)
Five active generals sit on the Communist Party's powerful 21-member Politburo, including two who run the important interior and sugar ministries.
While loyal first to Fidel Castro, many of these men have particularly close friendships with the younger brother. And they are likely to help him consolidate power if he is named president on Sunday following the ailing 81-year-old Fidel's resignation last week.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces are one of the island's strongest and most respected institutions, and with the top generals backing him, Raul is unlikely to face problems from the military at large — a sector that in many countries can be the most dangerous for a new government.
Moreover, Castro's Cuba, unlike many Latin American countries, has never experienced a military coup or rebellion.
President Bush acknowledged the military's influence months before Fidel's resignation, urging it to embrace change and abstain from using force to keep the communist government in power.
"You may have once believed in the revolution. Now you can see its failure," Bush said in an October speech.
Critical to Raul's success will be "the extent to which Raul and the generals are able to uphold loyalty to the chain of command," former CIA analyst Brian Latell wrote in "After Fidel," his recent book about the Castro brothers. "The odds of that will be much in their favor, in the beginning at least."
Dissident Vladimiro Roca, a fighter pilot before he broke with the government, believes Raul Castro has the military leaders' support. But even more than that, "they are interested in maintaining their status," Roca told The Associated Press in 2006 after Fidel Castro first ceded provisional power his brother.
That status is significant.
Gen. Abelardo Colome Ibarra, 68, oversees the island's vast domestic security and intelligence apparatus as interior minister. Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, 65, controls the Sugar Ministry. Other generals and colonels have run fishing, transportation and Habanos S.A., which works with a European firm to market Cuban cigars abroad.
Ramiro Valdes, 75, one of only three men honored with the title of Commander of the Revolution, for years operated a key company importing computers and other electronics, until Raul named him communications minister shortly after Fidel fell ill.
The armed forces also manage a chain of hundreds of small consumer goods stores and a tourism company that runs more than 30 hotels, with subsidiaries that provide domestic tourist travel by air and land.
Generals who once served as battlefield commanders have become leaders of a new military entrepreneurial class, with personal stakes in Cuba's future.
"Second- and third-tier officials have every incentive to stand together, if only as the best strategy for preserving their equities," Latell wrote.
The military's economic enterprises are run by the Defense Ministry's Business Administration Group, overseen by Raul Castro's second-in-command and confidant, Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro, 72.
By all accounts, Raul Castro is a highly organized manager with a pragmatic business sense that could lead him to allow openings in Cuba's economy. He hinted as much in a speech last year, saying some "structural changes" were needed. He did not elaborate.
He is known as a warm and jocular man who dotes almost as much on his troops as he does on his family, but also has proven to be extremely tough. In 1959, in the first months after the revolution, he and Ernesto "Che" Guevara oversaw the executions of officials from the deposed government of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Raul Castro was also among those on the ruling Council of State who upheld the death penalty for highly decorated Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa — reportedly once one of his closest friends — and three officers convicted of drug trafficking.
Ochoa and most of the top generals led Cuban troops on the battlefields of Angola and Ethiopia in the 1970s and 1980s. But when the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba lost its primary benefactor and arms supplier, drastic changes became necessary.
Fidel Castro announced that Cuba would no longer fight in foreign wars. Troop strength, which had peaked at an estimated 300,000 in the early 1960s, fell dramatically, to some 37,000 active troops and 700,000 reservists, according to "Jane's World Armies."
As the military's importance waned abroad, Raul Castro ensured his troops remained relevant by giving them important new roles in homeland defense and the economy.
___
February 23, 2008 - 10:00 p.m. EST
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I offer the following articles that people in Cuba want change.
Change -- that's the word on Cuban streets
A day after Fidel Castro's resignation, Cubans are talking, albeit quietly, about the need for change in their lives.
Posted on Thu, Feb. 21, 2008
By MIAMI HERALD STAFF REPORT
cuba@MiamiHerald.com
JAVIER GALEANO / AP
A woman holding a child walks next to students in Havana, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008. After Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced Tuesday his willing of retiring, many Cubans look to his brother Raul to let more people open businesses, own homes and even travel abroad. But since Raul Castro is already 76, they realize it will probably fall to his successor to ultimately fulfill or frustrate their dreams of prosperity.
HAVANA -- On a crisp and clear day, with a light breeze coming off Havana's famed seaside Malecón drive, a lot of Cubans were still talking Wednesday, quietly but forcefully, about Fidel Castro's decision to retire.
Over and over, they talked about change.
Over and over, they talked about watching whatever they want on TV. About the lives they see but can't touch.
About the need to breathe.
''The Cuban has been like a dolphin -- he's been in water up to his neck and he still applauds,'' said Julio, 35, a pedicab driver. ``That's changing now. What they give us is not enough.''
Cubans have been complaining more in recent months -- about their rock-bottom salaries, the milk they can't find for their children, the hotels reserved for foreign tourists, the trips abroad they can't take.
And they seem more willing than before to blame those ills on the island's communist economic system now that Raúl Castro, who has called for open debates on the country's shortcomings, appears ready to take full control after brother Fidel announced Tuesday that he is stepping down as president.
Cuba's legislative National Assembly will meet Sunday to elect a new president of its ruling Council of State -- the top title Fidel Castro has held since 1976. Raúl, 76, long designated as Fidel's successor, is expected to win the title.
''People are realizing that you don't have to be communist to be a revolutionary,'' Julio added, using the word in a way that seemed to imply criticism of the Cuban revolution's lack of change in decades.
``A revolutionary is just someone who wants change. Things here have to change. Now that Fidel Castro has left power, we don't know if it will be three days or three months, but in the next year or two. Things need to happen.''
Ariel, 28, a cabdriver, echoed Julio's take.
''We see the tourists coming in, we talk to them, but it's a life we can't touch,'' Ariel said as he looked around nervously. ``Everything here is so controlled that people are starting to question everything.''
That evolution -- that willingness to question the only political and economic system that most Cubans have ever known -- has been fueled by the flow of foreign visitors, the numerous pirate satellite TV antennas and underground music, much of it from Miami.
''Before, we were happy as socialists, because that's what we thought we wanted,'' Julio said, going on to quote from a song making the rounds in Cuba that he identified as Quien Manda, or ``Who's in Charge.''
Hay que sacarlo de donde esta porque el daño no se va -- He must be removed from his place, because the damage is not going away.
''I listen to that, and I watch Univisión, but for that they'd arrest me if they caught me,'' Julio added. ``That can't be.''
Armando, 56, a biologist, argued that the lack of hubbub in Cuba over Castro's decision to step down underlined the calm that has prevailed on this island nation since the Cuban leader underwent emergency surgery in June 2006 and handed over power to his brother ``temporarily.''
''There has been such tranquility in Cuba these past two years that he has been sick, because I believe what people have felt is relief,'' he said. ``Now that he's officially stepped down, the people can really breathe.''
Raúl has been promising profound reforms to fix the nation's many economic ills since his brother became ill, but he adopted only minor changes so far because of apparent resistance from Castro.
For the past 19 months, unlike his charismatic and long-winded brother, Raúl nevertheless has kept his speeches short and declined to call for the massive street marches that Castro was noted for.
''Now I can watch my Brazilian telenovelas without worrying they're going to be interrupted by a six-hour speech,'' Armando said. ``We Cubans have to entertain ourselves somehow. Little things like that matter.''
Although many Cubans are anticipating a better future under Raúl Castro, some also say they look back on the old with a certain nostalgia for the only ruler they have known since 1959.
''Even though I don't like his system, I still feel some nostalgia, since he is will no longer be the head our government,'' Armando said.
Cubans interviewed for this story seemed to have different theories about who is going to be the next president, with most of the older generation betting on Raúl and the young often tending toward Vice President Carlos Lage or Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, both much younger.
But in Cuba, change still comes slowly, when it comes.
''It's too soon to put someone young in,'' Armando said.
The name of The Miami Herald correspondent who wrote this dispatch, as well as the surnames of the Cubans interviewed, were withheld because the reporter lacked Cuban government permission to work on the island.
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I personally think President Raul will allow more family privately run farms to increase agricultural production. As the next article points out.
In the tradition of my favorite news channel Fox News, fair balanced and unafraid, lol.
Cuba tries to beef up agricultural industry
CUBA MAY BE TRYING TO START A NEW AGRICULTURAL REFORM WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF FLORIDIANS.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 22, 2008
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com
With the help of Florida cattle ranchers, Cuba may be starting another attempt to remake its woefully inefficient agricultural industry.
''Agriculture is priority No. 1'' for the Raúl Castro government, said Naples cattle rancher John Parke Wright, who travels to Cuba monthly to discuss ways to improve the island's dismal agricultural production rates.
Some reforms are already under way on the island to help small- and-medium-size farmers profit more from their labor, Wright said. The effort is starting with farmers who raise pigs and chickens, he said.
Wright said he has written memos to Raúl Castro giving advice on reforms and has helped Texas ranchers sell 2,000 ''straws'' of Brahman bull semen to Cuba.
The Adams Ranch near Fort Pierce has sold about two dozen of its specially developed Braford cattle breed to the Cubans. And the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida has had academic exchanges with scientists on the island to share information.
Wright said he spent all of last week with Ramón Castro, the elder brother of Fidel and Raúl Castro, and wants to see reforms that will help small- and medium-size farmers reap more money for their efforts.
The idea is ''good work, good money,'' Wright said Thursday. ``That's pretty straightforward stuff.''
Others are highly skeptical. Aldo Leiva, a director of the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami, said: ``Mr. Wright sells bulls for a living, and he has a long-standing relationship with the Castro government. If his idea is to bring democracy by collaborating with the Castros, that's an oxymoron.''
Still, some academic experts believe that Cuba's first attempts at change, however modest, will come in agriculture.
Marifeli Pérez-Stable, a vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington
Marifeli Pérez-Stable, a vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington and a professor at Florida International University, said: ''Fidel has been sold on the issue of agricultural reforms. The government thinks it can control these reforms, but no matter what, they are going to be radical in their context,'' because the country has gone so long without reforms.
Even small changes in agriculture could have ''combustible . . . unintended consequences,'' Pérez-Stable said Wednesday night during a panel discussion presented by the Cuban Research Institute. ``The government won't be able to control them.''
The tension, as it has been for nearly a half-century, is that ''Cubans like making money and Fidel doesn't want them to make money,'' Pérez-Stable said.
Damián Fernández, director of FIU's Cuban Research Institute, said Raúl Castro will try to avoid potentially combustible situations, because he must walk a fine line in making changes.
Cuba has ''not fully entered into a post-Fidel period,'' Fernández said. Still, he views Raúl as having ``much more pragmatic, rational basis for his leadership.''
But ''he needs hard-liners to be rather happy,'' while also looking to the general citizens' complaints about their shortage of goods, Fernández said.
The panelists noted that many Cubans complain how hard it is to live on meager wages and suffer food shortages when the foreign tourists in the hotels are treated to huge buffets.
Wright said Cuba can make changes without them being combustible.
''The Cubans . . . in the leadership are in the cocina [kitchen] and they know what they're good at. They're solid men and women. The one thing Cubans want is more pesos in their pockets and a better quality of life,'' Wright said.
Leiva noted that during the economic crisis of the early 1990s, farmers were allowed to sell products they had grown for their profit, ''but as soon as the government [of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez] stepped in'' to back Cuba financially, the Castro government declared farmers' profits to be ``ideological distortions.''
Mike Adams said several years ago his Florida ranch sold Cuba ''about 25 heifers and a bull or two'' from the Braford breed the ranch has developed over the past 50 years as a combination of 5/8 Herford and 3/8 Brahman. The animals have a strong heat tolerance and insect resistance so they can thrive in the tropics.
Adams said sales stopped because Cuba, like many countries, stopped importing U.S. cattle after reports of mad cow disease.
Bill Messina, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida, said the institution's scientists haven't really worked to help improve Cuba's agriculture, but from time to time, there have been exchanges of scientists.
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A billboard showing Fidel Castro in Havana on Tuesday.
By MARC LACEY
Published: February 20, 2008
Despite looming large over the Cuban people for half a century, engineering their lives down to the city block and barraging them with his innermost thoughts in speeches and essays that went on ad infinitum, Fidel Castro elicited a rather muted reaction on the streets of Havana on Tuesday with his decision to finally stand down as presiden
Reaction in Cuba and Miami
Related
Castro Circle Likely to Hold Power After His Resignation (February 20, 2008) The consensus from dissidents, loyal Fidelistas and everyone in between seemed to be: The struggle of everyday life will go on.
What emotion the announcement did elicit was on the sly, under the watchful eye of a heavy police presence in the streets. One Havana man said he saw people giving high fives to one another as they passed by and openly smiling at the news. “People feel liberated,” said the man, identifying himself only as Ernesto.
Cubans gathered in cafes, city parks and along the seaside Malecón to read Mr. Castro’s lengthy retirement notice, which ran in Granma, the state-run newspaper that serves as the chronicle of his life.
But the news seemed far less jarring to everyday Cubans than his announcement in July 2006 that he was temporarily ceding power to his brother, Raúl, after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery.
At that time, speculation was rife that Mr. Castro was dying, and expectations were high that the power transfer might lead to big changes in everyday lives. But as months have passed, Mr. Castro has recuperated, at least to the point that he can meet with occasional foreign visitors and write regular newspaper commentaries. Changes, though, have proved few for the people here, a resolute lot who are taught from childhood that sacrifice is part of being Cuban.
“This isn’t news,” Elizardo Sánchez, a leading dissident, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning, after learning from friends that his longtime nemesis would be stepping down. “It was expected and it does nothing to change the human rights situation, which continues to be unfavorable, or to end the one-party state. There’s no reason to celebrate.”
Mr. Sánchez said he does not expect Mr. Castro, no matter who succeeds him, to retire completely from the political scene. “He’s going to continue to control the levers of power,” he said.
Not everyone was so ho-hum.
“Fidel stepping down? That’s impossible,” Dayron Clavellon, a 20-year-old model, told Agence France-Presse, returning home on Tuesday morning after a night out with his friends in Havana’s club district.
“We knew this was going to happen one day,” Mr. Clavellon said. “But now that it’s a reality, it’s just hitting us.”
Mr. Castro, whose photograph looks down from billboards across the island, is both revered and reviled by Cubans. In criticizing him in public, Cubans stroke an imaginary beard instead of uttering his name and possibly running afoul of the authorities. Those who praise him most often cite his investments in education and health care, and they agree with him that the country’s economic woes are caused not by neglect from Mr. Castro but by the trade embargo imposed by Washington.
Like many Cubans, Alba, a 67-year-old retired nurse, said she expected Mr. Castro to be president for life and “die with his boots on,” Agence France-Presse said. Pablo Gonzalez, a retired army officer, said that “the news surprised me — even though I was expecting it.”
Even though Mr. Castro did not name a successor, most on the streets expected Raúl Castro to continue as president, possibly now more inclined to push for reforms in the Communist system.
Since stepping into his brother’s office, Raúl Castro has invited criticism from the public on how the country’s Communist system has come up short. He has been barraged with feedback.
The bus system is a wreck, they say. Food is too expensive, they grouse. Why are hotels limited to foreigners? And why are there two currencies, one for foreigners and a far less useful one for Cubans?
It is those reforms that seem to matter most to Cubans, not a reshuffling — even a dramatic one like this — of the government’s organizational chart.
Tom Miller contributed reporting.
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Question & Options
President Raul of Cuba will?
1. Will Allow more family private farms.
2. Will not allow more private farms.
3. Will allow small private enterprises. You may post what kinds.
4. Will not allow small private enterprises.
5. Will allow more self work categorys. you may post what kinds.
6. Will not allow more self work categorys.
7. Will allow multy party elections to the National Assembly Parliment.
In la Habana's personal views multy party elections would bring about economic, political and social changes anyways.
8. Will not allow multy party elections to the National Assembly Parliment.
9. I support full USA Cuba Relations only with democratic multy party elections in Cuba.
10. I support full USA Cuba relations without any reforms in Cuba, as is.
Questions not in the Public Poll also for argument, discussion, and views.
11. Will release all political prisoners withinn Cuba not exile. At lest Those who have not committed any physical crimes.
12. Will not release all political prisoners. At least those who have not committed any physical crimes.
13. Will allow freedoms of the Press.
14. Will not allow freedoms of the Press.
15. Will allow the church-es more freedom of religion and social space.
16. Will not allow the Church-es more freedom of religion nor social space.
17. Will reform the neighborhood committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
Perhaps turning them only into into social help organizations.
18. What will the European Union Nations do, if Raul does not make Political reforms, like multy party elections. Nor makes real economic changes just perhaps cosmetic changes?
Fidel has not yet resigned his post as First Secretary to the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Fidel may yet be elected to another office.
Fidel might still be elected President of the Council of Ministers only to then resign
Fidel has not been seen or heard in public for almost two years now. Only in governemt Videos. Granma articles written by Fidel. Statements and coments by high Cuban government officials.
Therefore the rumors and possibilities that Fidel is very sick-ill not to be seen in Public, senile or has already died.
I dont usuall post links per say, but post the links in the post itself.
My apologies for making this introduction thread post so long, but there is so much material to cover.
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Since Fidel announced his resignation as PResident of Cuba. Before the National Assembly Parliment meets to elect the new Council of Ministers President. And the logical choice to replace Fidel is his brother Raul Castro. Therefore this thread.
Do you think President Raul will make real economic, political and social changes in Cuba? What kind of changes you think Raul will make?
Will Raul allow more private farms. Allow small business enterprises. Allow more self work categorys that pay taxes to the state. Allow multy party elections to the Cuban National Assembly.
Raul Castro has made statements in the past for the need of economic reforms. Yet he has also made statements for the need to strengthfen Socialism or in other words the government and revolution.
-------------------------------------------------
Raul's Generals and thier control of the Cuban economy :
'Raulistas' Expected to Back Raul Castro
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA — They are called "Raulistas" — top military men who manage much of Cuba's economy and populate the upper reaches of power. On Sunday, these men will likely ensure that Raul Castro not only succeeds his brother Fidel as president, but remains in firm control.
Having served in Raul Castro's Defense Ministry for decades, Cuba's active and retired military leaders today oversee key economic endeavors, from farming to the tourism, that bring in hard currency.
(enlarge photo)
Raul Castro, center, longtime Defense Minister and brother of Cuba's leader Fidel Castro, joins an anti-terrorism protest in Havana in this Tuesday, May 17, 2005 file photo. As Fidel Castro steps down as Cuba's president, Cuba's top military men seem likely to ensure that Raul Castro not only rises to the country's No. 1 spot, but remains in firm control. From left to right are Army Corps General Rigoberto Garcia Fernandez, Raul Castro's son Alejandro Castro Espin, Raul Castro's grandson Raul Rodriguez Castro who is partially covered by Raul Castro, Raul Castro, Juan Almeida and Ramiro Valdes, both Council of State members and historic rebel fighters who hold the honorary title of Commander of the Revolution. (AP Photo/Jorge Rey)
Five active generals sit on the Communist Party's powerful 21-member Politburo, including two who run the important interior and sugar ministries.
While loyal first to Fidel Castro, many of these men have particularly close friendships with the younger brother. And they are likely to help him consolidate power if he is named president on Sunday following the ailing 81-year-old Fidel's resignation last week.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces are one of the island's strongest and most respected institutions, and with the top generals backing him, Raul is unlikely to face problems from the military at large — a sector that in many countries can be the most dangerous for a new government.
Moreover, Castro's Cuba, unlike many Latin American countries, has never experienced a military coup or rebellion.
President Bush acknowledged the military's influence months before Fidel's resignation, urging it to embrace change and abstain from using force to keep the communist government in power.
"You may have once believed in the revolution. Now you can see its failure," Bush said in an October speech.
Critical to Raul's success will be "the extent to which Raul and the generals are able to uphold loyalty to the chain of command," former CIA analyst Brian Latell wrote in "After Fidel," his recent book about the Castro brothers. "The odds of that will be much in their favor, in the beginning at least."
Dissident Vladimiro Roca, a fighter pilot before he broke with the government, believes Raul Castro has the military leaders' support. But even more than that, "they are interested in maintaining their status," Roca told The Associated Press in 2006 after Fidel Castro first ceded provisional power his brother.
That status is significant.
Gen. Abelardo Colome Ibarra, 68, oversees the island's vast domestic security and intelligence apparatus as interior minister. Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, 65, controls the Sugar Ministry. Other generals and colonels have run fishing, transportation and Habanos S.A., which works with a European firm to market Cuban cigars abroad.
Ramiro Valdes, 75, one of only three men honored with the title of Commander of the Revolution, for years operated a key company importing computers and other electronics, until Raul named him communications minister shortly after Fidel fell ill.
The armed forces also manage a chain of hundreds of small consumer goods stores and a tourism company that runs more than 30 hotels, with subsidiaries that provide domestic tourist travel by air and land.
Generals who once served as battlefield commanders have become leaders of a new military entrepreneurial class, with personal stakes in Cuba's future.
"Second- and third-tier officials have every incentive to stand together, if only as the best strategy for preserving their equities," Latell wrote.
The military's economic enterprises are run by the Defense Ministry's Business Administration Group, overseen by Raul Castro's second-in-command and confidant, Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro, 72.
By all accounts, Raul Castro is a highly organized manager with a pragmatic business sense that could lead him to allow openings in Cuba's economy. He hinted as much in a speech last year, saying some "structural changes" were needed. He did not elaborate.
He is known as a warm and jocular man who dotes almost as much on his troops as he does on his family, but also has proven to be extremely tough. In 1959, in the first months after the revolution, he and Ernesto "Che" Guevara oversaw the executions of officials from the deposed government of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Raul Castro was also among those on the ruling Council of State who upheld the death penalty for highly decorated Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa — reportedly once one of his closest friends — and three officers convicted of drug trafficking.
Ochoa and most of the top generals led Cuban troops on the battlefields of Angola and Ethiopia in the 1970s and 1980s. But when the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba lost its primary benefactor and arms supplier, drastic changes became necessary.
Fidel Castro announced that Cuba would no longer fight in foreign wars. Troop strength, which had peaked at an estimated 300,000 in the early 1960s, fell dramatically, to some 37,000 active troops and 700,000 reservists, according to "Jane's World Armies."
As the military's importance waned abroad, Raul Castro ensured his troops remained relevant by giving them important new roles in homeland defense and the economy.
___
February 23, 2008 - 10:00 p.m. EST
----------------------------------------------
I offer the following articles that people in Cuba want change.
Change -- that's the word on Cuban streets
A day after Fidel Castro's resignation, Cubans are talking, albeit quietly, about the need for change in their lives.
Posted on Thu, Feb. 21, 2008
By MIAMI HERALD STAFF REPORT
cuba@MiamiHerald.com
JAVIER GALEANO / AP
A woman holding a child walks next to students in Havana, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008. After Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced Tuesday his willing of retiring, many Cubans look to his brother Raul to let more people open businesses, own homes and even travel abroad. But since Raul Castro is already 76, they realize it will probably fall to his successor to ultimately fulfill or frustrate their dreams of prosperity.
HAVANA -- On a crisp and clear day, with a light breeze coming off Havana's famed seaside Malecón drive, a lot of Cubans were still talking Wednesday, quietly but forcefully, about Fidel Castro's decision to retire.
Over and over, they talked about change.
Over and over, they talked about watching whatever they want on TV. About the lives they see but can't touch.
About the need to breathe.
''The Cuban has been like a dolphin -- he's been in water up to his neck and he still applauds,'' said Julio, 35, a pedicab driver. ``That's changing now. What they give us is not enough.''
Cubans have been complaining more in recent months -- about their rock-bottom salaries, the milk they can't find for their children, the hotels reserved for foreign tourists, the trips abroad they can't take.
And they seem more willing than before to blame those ills on the island's communist economic system now that Raúl Castro, who has called for open debates on the country's shortcomings, appears ready to take full control after brother Fidel announced Tuesday that he is stepping down as president.
Cuba's legislative National Assembly will meet Sunday to elect a new president of its ruling Council of State -- the top title Fidel Castro has held since 1976. Raúl, 76, long designated as Fidel's successor, is expected to win the title.
''People are realizing that you don't have to be communist to be a revolutionary,'' Julio added, using the word in a way that seemed to imply criticism of the Cuban revolution's lack of change in decades.
``A revolutionary is just someone who wants change. Things here have to change. Now that Fidel Castro has left power, we don't know if it will be three days or three months, but in the next year or two. Things need to happen.''
Ariel, 28, a cabdriver, echoed Julio's take.
''We see the tourists coming in, we talk to them, but it's a life we can't touch,'' Ariel said as he looked around nervously. ``Everything here is so controlled that people are starting to question everything.''
That evolution -- that willingness to question the only political and economic system that most Cubans have ever known -- has been fueled by the flow of foreign visitors, the numerous pirate satellite TV antennas and underground music, much of it from Miami.
''Before, we were happy as socialists, because that's what we thought we wanted,'' Julio said, going on to quote from a song making the rounds in Cuba that he identified as Quien Manda, or ``Who's in Charge.''
Hay que sacarlo de donde esta porque el daño no se va -- He must be removed from his place, because the damage is not going away.
''I listen to that, and I watch Univisión, but for that they'd arrest me if they caught me,'' Julio added. ``That can't be.''
Armando, 56, a biologist, argued that the lack of hubbub in Cuba over Castro's decision to step down underlined the calm that has prevailed on this island nation since the Cuban leader underwent emergency surgery in June 2006 and handed over power to his brother ``temporarily.''
''There has been such tranquility in Cuba these past two years that he has been sick, because I believe what people have felt is relief,'' he said. ``Now that he's officially stepped down, the people can really breathe.''
Raúl has been promising profound reforms to fix the nation's many economic ills since his brother became ill, but he adopted only minor changes so far because of apparent resistance from Castro.
For the past 19 months, unlike his charismatic and long-winded brother, Raúl nevertheless has kept his speeches short and declined to call for the massive street marches that Castro was noted for.
''Now I can watch my Brazilian telenovelas without worrying they're going to be interrupted by a six-hour speech,'' Armando said. ``We Cubans have to entertain ourselves somehow. Little things like that matter.''
Although many Cubans are anticipating a better future under Raúl Castro, some also say they look back on the old with a certain nostalgia for the only ruler they have known since 1959.
''Even though I don't like his system, I still feel some nostalgia, since he is will no longer be the head our government,'' Armando said.
Cubans interviewed for this story seemed to have different theories about who is going to be the next president, with most of the older generation betting on Raúl and the young often tending toward Vice President Carlos Lage or Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, both much younger.
But in Cuba, change still comes slowly, when it comes.
''It's too soon to put someone young in,'' Armando said.
The name of The Miami Herald correspondent who wrote this dispatch, as well as the surnames of the Cubans interviewed, were withheld because the reporter lacked Cuban government permission to work on the island.
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I personally think President Raul will allow more family privately run farms to increase agricultural production. As the next article points out.
In the tradition of my favorite news channel Fox News, fair balanced and unafraid, lol.
Cuba tries to beef up agricultural industry
CUBA MAY BE TRYING TO START A NEW AGRICULTURAL REFORM WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF FLORIDIANS.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 22, 2008
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com
With the help of Florida cattle ranchers, Cuba may be starting another attempt to remake its woefully inefficient agricultural industry.
''Agriculture is priority No. 1'' for the Raúl Castro government, said Naples cattle rancher John Parke Wright, who travels to Cuba monthly to discuss ways to improve the island's dismal agricultural production rates.
Some reforms are already under way on the island to help small- and-medium-size farmers profit more from their labor, Wright said. The effort is starting with farmers who raise pigs and chickens, he said.
Wright said he has written memos to Raúl Castro giving advice on reforms and has helped Texas ranchers sell 2,000 ''straws'' of Brahman bull semen to Cuba.
The Adams Ranch near Fort Pierce has sold about two dozen of its specially developed Braford cattle breed to the Cubans. And the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida has had academic exchanges with scientists on the island to share information.
Wright said he spent all of last week with Ramón Castro, the elder brother of Fidel and Raúl Castro, and wants to see reforms that will help small- and medium-size farmers reap more money for their efforts.
The idea is ''good work, good money,'' Wright said Thursday. ``That's pretty straightforward stuff.''
Others are highly skeptical. Aldo Leiva, a director of the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami, said: ``Mr. Wright sells bulls for a living, and he has a long-standing relationship with the Castro government. If his idea is to bring democracy by collaborating with the Castros, that's an oxymoron.''
Still, some academic experts believe that Cuba's first attempts at change, however modest, will come in agriculture.
Marifeli Pérez-Stable, a vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington
Marifeli Pérez-Stable, a vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington and a professor at Florida International University, said: ''Fidel has been sold on the issue of agricultural reforms. The government thinks it can control these reforms, but no matter what, they are going to be radical in their context,'' because the country has gone so long without reforms.
Even small changes in agriculture could have ''combustible . . . unintended consequences,'' Pérez-Stable said Wednesday night during a panel discussion presented by the Cuban Research Institute. ``The government won't be able to control them.''
The tension, as it has been for nearly a half-century, is that ''Cubans like making money and Fidel doesn't want them to make money,'' Pérez-Stable said.
Damián Fernández, director of FIU's Cuban Research Institute, said Raúl Castro will try to avoid potentially combustible situations, because he must walk a fine line in making changes.
Cuba has ''not fully entered into a post-Fidel period,'' Fernández said. Still, he views Raúl as having ``much more pragmatic, rational basis for his leadership.''
But ''he needs hard-liners to be rather happy,'' while also looking to the general citizens' complaints about their shortage of goods, Fernández said.
The panelists noted that many Cubans complain how hard it is to live on meager wages and suffer food shortages when the foreign tourists in the hotels are treated to huge buffets.
Wright said Cuba can make changes without them being combustible.
''The Cubans . . . in the leadership are in the cocina [kitchen] and they know what they're good at. They're solid men and women. The one thing Cubans want is more pesos in their pockets and a better quality of life,'' Wright said.
Leiva noted that during the economic crisis of the early 1990s, farmers were allowed to sell products they had grown for their profit, ''but as soon as the government [of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez] stepped in'' to back Cuba financially, the Castro government declared farmers' profits to be ``ideological distortions.''
Mike Adams said several years ago his Florida ranch sold Cuba ''about 25 heifers and a bull or two'' from the Braford breed the ranch has developed over the past 50 years as a combination of 5/8 Herford and 3/8 Brahman. The animals have a strong heat tolerance and insect resistance so they can thrive in the tropics.
Adams said sales stopped because Cuba, like many countries, stopped importing U.S. cattle after reports of mad cow disease.
Bill Messina, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida, said the institution's scientists haven't really worked to help improve Cuba's agriculture, but from time to time, there have been exchanges of scientists.
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A billboard showing Fidel Castro in Havana on Tuesday.
By MARC LACEY
Published: February 20, 2008
Despite looming large over the Cuban people for half a century, engineering their lives down to the city block and barraging them with his innermost thoughts in speeches and essays that went on ad infinitum, Fidel Castro elicited a rather muted reaction on the streets of Havana on Tuesday with his decision to finally stand down as presiden
Reaction in Cuba and Miami
Related
Castro Circle Likely to Hold Power After His Resignation (February 20, 2008) The consensus from dissidents, loyal Fidelistas and everyone in between seemed to be: The struggle of everyday life will go on.
What emotion the announcement did elicit was on the sly, under the watchful eye of a heavy police presence in the streets. One Havana man said he saw people giving high fives to one another as they passed by and openly smiling at the news. “People feel liberated,” said the man, identifying himself only as Ernesto.
Cubans gathered in cafes, city parks and along the seaside Malecón to read Mr. Castro’s lengthy retirement notice, which ran in Granma, the state-run newspaper that serves as the chronicle of his life.
But the news seemed far less jarring to everyday Cubans than his announcement in July 2006 that he was temporarily ceding power to his brother, Raúl, after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery.
At that time, speculation was rife that Mr. Castro was dying, and expectations were high that the power transfer might lead to big changes in everyday lives. But as months have passed, Mr. Castro has recuperated, at least to the point that he can meet with occasional foreign visitors and write regular newspaper commentaries. Changes, though, have proved few for the people here, a resolute lot who are taught from childhood that sacrifice is part of being Cuban.
“This isn’t news,” Elizardo Sánchez, a leading dissident, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning, after learning from friends that his longtime nemesis would be stepping down. “It was expected and it does nothing to change the human rights situation, which continues to be unfavorable, or to end the one-party state. There’s no reason to celebrate.”
Mr. Sánchez said he does not expect Mr. Castro, no matter who succeeds him, to retire completely from the political scene. “He’s going to continue to control the levers of power,” he said.
Not everyone was so ho-hum.
“Fidel stepping down? That’s impossible,” Dayron Clavellon, a 20-year-old model, told Agence France-Presse, returning home on Tuesday morning after a night out with his friends in Havana’s club district.
“We knew this was going to happen one day,” Mr. Clavellon said. “But now that it’s a reality, it’s just hitting us.”
Mr. Castro, whose photograph looks down from billboards across the island, is both revered and reviled by Cubans. In criticizing him in public, Cubans stroke an imaginary beard instead of uttering his name and possibly running afoul of the authorities. Those who praise him most often cite his investments in education and health care, and they agree with him that the country’s economic woes are caused not by neglect from Mr. Castro but by the trade embargo imposed by Washington.
Like many Cubans, Alba, a 67-year-old retired nurse, said she expected Mr. Castro to be president for life and “die with his boots on,” Agence France-Presse said. Pablo Gonzalez, a retired army officer, said that “the news surprised me — even though I was expecting it.”
Even though Mr. Castro did not name a successor, most on the streets expected Raúl Castro to continue as president, possibly now more inclined to push for reforms in the Communist system.
Since stepping into his brother’s office, Raúl Castro has invited criticism from the public on how the country’s Communist system has come up short. He has been barraged with feedback.
The bus system is a wreck, they say. Food is too expensive, they grouse. Why are hotels limited to foreigners? And why are there two currencies, one for foreigners and a far less useful one for Cubans?
It is those reforms that seem to matter most to Cubans, not a reshuffling — even a dramatic one like this — of the government’s organizational chart.
Tom Miller contributed reporting.
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Question & Options
President Raul of Cuba will?
1. Will Allow more family private farms.
2. Will not allow more private farms.
3. Will allow small private enterprises. You may post what kinds.
4. Will not allow small private enterprises.
5. Will allow more self work categorys. you may post what kinds.
6. Will not allow more self work categorys.
7. Will allow multy party elections to the National Assembly Parliment.
In la Habana's personal views multy party elections would bring about economic, political and social changes anyways.
8. Will not allow multy party elections to the National Assembly Parliment.
9. I support full USA Cuba Relations only with democratic multy party elections in Cuba.
10. I support full USA Cuba relations without any reforms in Cuba, as is.
Questions not in the Public Poll also for argument, discussion, and views.
11. Will release all political prisoners withinn Cuba not exile. At lest Those who have not committed any physical crimes.
12. Will not release all political prisoners. At least those who have not committed any physical crimes.
13. Will allow freedoms of the Press.
14. Will not allow freedoms of the Press.
15. Will allow the church-es more freedom of religion and social space.
16. Will not allow the Church-es more freedom of religion nor social space.
17. Will reform the neighborhood committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
Perhaps turning them only into into social help organizations.
18. What will the European Union Nations do, if Raul does not make Political reforms, like multy party elections. Nor makes real economic changes just perhaps cosmetic changes?
Fidel has not yet resigned his post as First Secretary to the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
Fidel may yet be elected to another office.
Fidel might still be elected President of the Council of Ministers only to then resign
Fidel has not been seen or heard in public for almost two years now. Only in governemt Videos. Granma articles written by Fidel. Statements and coments by high Cuban government officials.
Therefore the rumors and possibilities that Fidel is very sick-ill not to be seen in Public, senile or has already died.
I dont usuall post links per say, but post the links in the post itself.
My apologies for making this introduction thread post so long, but there is so much material to cover.