Bigger role for deputy to Castro
Carlos Lage is aligned with Raul Castro, Cuba's interim leader.
By Frances Robles
MIAMI HERALD
The latest leader to emerge in Cuba is a pediatrician and economic
reformer who is known for biking to work.
Vice President Carlos Lage, 55, who once served on a medical mission to
Ethiopia, became the nation's economic czar in the early 1990s. Now he
has become one of the few Cuban politicians to stand out as a rising
confidant of interim leader Raul Castro's.
Lage's rise - and the perceived slide of hard-liners close to Fidel
Castro, such as Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque - has marked the six
months since Fidel ceded power to his brother after abdominal surgery
for an undisclosed ailment.
As old-time communist stalwarts and young up-and-comers close ranks in
Havana to consolidate power in a not-quite-post-Fidel Cuba, experts
agree that Lage's heightened profile is a sign of a Cuba to come: one
under Raul, where an economic overhaul could be welcomed.
Once on the edges of the Cuban limelight, Lage has represented Cuba at
many international gatherings, including presidential summits and
inaugurations, and led a top-level delegation to Venezuela two weeks ago
to sign a string of agreements with President Hugo Chavez, Cuba's top
ally and financial backer.
"Lage is key in all this," said Wayne Smith, a former chief of the U.S.
diplomatic mission in Havana and critic of U.S. policy on Cuba. "Lage
had been sort of put in the backseat because he wanted to move ahead
with economic reforms and Fidel didn't. Raul comes in and makes Lage his
right-hand man. He's been brought out of the closet, so to speak."
Lage was credited with pushing state enterprise administrators to
increase productivity and keep the economy from collapsing without
surrendering socialism after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the early
1990s, he oversaw economic changes that permitted limited and indirect
land holdings and small businesses.
Raul is believed to have supported the moves, but Fidel curtailed them.
When Fidel announced July 31 that an intestinal ailment had sidelined
him and he needed to relinquish power for the first time in 47 years, he
assigned his pet projects to six senior officials.
He put energy and finance in the hands of Lage, a member of the
Communist Party's ruling Politburo since 1991 and one of the younger
members of Fidel's inner circle. Lage's son, also Carlos, is now head of
the influential Federation of University Students.
And while he has touted the need for economic changes, Lage by no means
wavers in his commitment to socialism.
"Socialism in Cuba is irreversible... because with our efforts yesterday
and today, we make it irreversible," he said in a December speech. "In
Cuba, there will be no succession; there will be continuity."
Experts point to Ramiro Valdes as another person who has taken a more
important role. Although long believed to be Raul's nemesis, Valdes was
named minister of communications, in charge of key sectors such as the
Internet.
Although experts wonder whether Raul named Valdes so he could keep his
enemies close, they note that it nevertheless is a sign of closing
ranks. As long as Fidel remains alive, analysts doubt drastic changes
will take place.
"Differences will not emerge until people start competing for political
power, and, at the moment, there is no such thing," said Frank Mora, a
professor at the National War College in Washington. "The fact that...
these two hated guys could come together and hold hands tells you
something: In a moment of uncertainty, they will come together."
Despite the semblance of unity, experts agree that Perez Roque, the
foreign minister, appears to have taken a lesser role in the last few
months. Although he gave a key speech during an international summit in
Havana in September, he has not been part of many of the foreign
delegations led by Lage.
The lower profile is important, because Perez Roque is a key member of
Fidel's inner circle. He's among the hard-liners dubbed "Talibans" for
their strict allegiance to communism.
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