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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Cubans, world wait to see if Fidel Castro retires

Cubans, world wait to see if Fidel Castro retires
By Ray Sánchez | Havana Bureau
December 19, 2007

HAVANA - The lengthy letter signed by Fidel Castro appeared Tuesday on
the front pages of two state dailies, but many Cubans in the capital
were unfazed by the news that the man who has dominated the island since
1959 might not retake power.

"It's time to move on," said Enrique Marrero, 82, who was more
interested in talk about Cuba's national baseball series in a Havana
park frequented by sports fans. "He needs to open a path for young
people. That's the law of life."

Outside of Cuba, however, policy experts, exiles and presidential
candidates speculated about the way the transition of power will play
out in the coming months.

"His retirement is like writing the final chapter of the cold war," said
Sarah Stephens, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based Center
for Democracy in the Americas, which advocates the lifting of travel
restrictions to Cuba.

Since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 and handing
the presidency to his brother Raúl, Fidel Castro has played more of an
emeritus role. With his health said to be improving, he was nominated on
Dec. 2 as a candidate for the National Assembly. The assembly meets in
March to choose a 31-member Council of State, which will hand-pick the
next president. Only assembly members qualify for the top job, which
Fidel Castro has held since its creation in 1976.

Fidel Castro's lingering presence on the political scene is seen as an
impediment to his brother's efforts to implement important economic reforms.

"Fidel's illness but not death and now this further yielding allows Raúl
and the others around him who are running the country to manage
expectations and keep them under control, but allow this process of
debate and slow but incremental reform to go forward," Julia Sweig, a
Latin America expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington,
said in a conference call.

Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the
National Security Archive, said the statement affirms the younger
Castro's control: "It is confirmation that Raúl is in charge."

Stephens said Castro's statement "puts people on notice that a change is
in the offing and, more importantly, it puts Fidel Castro himself in
charge of writing the script."

Omar Lopez, human rights director of the Cuban American National
Foundation, said Cuban Americans were growing tired over speculation
about Castro's future, waiting instead for real political and economic
changes. "Everyone is waiting for the next chapter," he said.

In a letter read by an announcer on state television Monday night, Fidel
Castro said, "My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even
less to obstruct the path of younger people, but to share experiences
and ideas whose modest worth comes from the exceptional era in which I
lived."

The vague statement was the first time the 81-year-old head of state has
suggested he would not return to power in the 16 months since he had
emergency stomach surgery and handed over power to younger brother.
Castro ended the letter with admiration for Brazilian architect Oscar
Niemeyer, who still is working at 100.

"I think like Niemeyer that you have to be of consequence up to the
end," he said.

On the sprawling University of Havana campus, a 26-year-old math teacher
who declined to give her name said she was unmoved by word that Castro
might step aside permanently.

"The regime lives on," she said. "It will be a long time before we see
concrete changes in our lives."

Ray Sánchez can be reached at rlsanchez@sun-sentinel.com.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flrndcubafolo1219sbdec19,0,3909446.story

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