Collective Leadership Possible in Cuba

Collective Leadership Possible in Cuba
Fidel Castro's Illness Sets Stage for Collective Leadership on Cuba
By ANITA SNOW
The Associated Press

HAVANA - From his sickbed, Fidel Castro has set the stage for a more
collective style of governance in a country long used to a single
strongman, selecting six trusted comrades to run key projects while his
brother acts as president and head of the Communist Party.

The division of powers gives the first solid indication of the direction
the Cuban government is likely to take after Castro's death.

In a statement announcing his illness Monday night, Castro said his
brother and longtime Defense Minister Raul Castro was in charge of the
government, the ruling party and the military during a recovery expected
to take weeks.

But Castro distributed responsibility for running and funding his pet
projects among six men, including Vice President Carlos Lage, Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Central Bank President Francisco Soberon.

He also named the Communist Party as the guiding force for ensuring his
instructions were followed.

"There is no doubt that our people and our Revolution will fight to the
last drop of blood to defend these and other ideas and measures that are
necessary to safeguard this historic process," Castro wrote.

Raul Castro recently hinted at a shared future style of governance,
noting that his brother was a singular type of leader and saying the
party not any individual would be Castro's true successor.

The elder Castro, 79, is famous for wanting to have a say in virtually
every area of the island's governance.

The party newspaper Granma underscored that point Thursday, saying "the
special confidence the people grant the founding leader of a revolution
cannot be transmitted as if were an inheritance to those who will occupy
the top positions in the country in the future."

On Thursday, Raul Castro still had not been seen in public and there
continued to be no official updates on Fidel Castro's condition.

Next to his brother, Castro gave the heaviest responsibilities to Lage,
charging him with overseeing his ongoing "energy revolution" a massive
renovation of the island's antiquated electrical grid.

A generation younger than Castro at 54, Lage is credited with helping
save Cuba's faltering economy after the Soviet Union broke up, designing
modest economic reforms that allowed foreign investment in state
enterprises and legalized the use of the U.S. dollar. Those reforms have
been rolled back as the economy improves.

Trained as a pediatrician, Lage is a mild-mannered man with a balding
pate and pleasant face often sent to represent Cuba at international
gatherings. He has wide control over government administration and holds
key positions in the Council of State and Politburo.

Representing an even younger generation is 41-year-old Perez Roque, just
34 when appointed foreign minister in 1999. Perez Roque previously spent
seven years overseeing Castro's personal schedule, becoming intimately
familiar with the leader's thinking.

A short, stocky man with a ready grin, Perez Roque kept a cool head and
grabbed the microphone to calm tens of thousands of Cubans in 2001 when
Castro fainted briefly during a speech.

Soberon, the 62-year-old Central Bank president, evidently was named in
Castro's statement for his role in financing projects