Posted on Wed, Apr. 23, 2008
By RENATO PEREZ PIZARRO
Special to The Miami Herald
Once again Cuba's Fidel Castro has raised eyebrows with a newspaper
column, this time making an unusually public attack on an ousted cabinet
minister and saying he had a hand in the firing.
The column's odd title was ''The living and the dead,'' and Castro
signed off with an even odder line: ``We the living and the dead shall
fight!''
In the article published in the Communist Party daily Granma, Castro
reviled former Education Minister Luis Ignacio Gómez Gutiérrez, saying
he ``had lost [his] energy and revolutionary conscience.''
According to Castro, Gómez kept boasting to foreign visitors that he,
not his institution and colleagues, should receive credit for the
ministry's achievements in education.And Gómez spent too much time
traveling abroad -- one trip per month for the past three years --
ostensibly on ''international cooperation'' tours, Castro added.
For those reasons ''we no longer have confidence in him; clearer yet, no
confidence at all,'' Castro continued. ``I resolutely support the
decision of the Party and the Council of State to replace [him].''
``I am not at all pleased to hurt anybody, but I must not hesitate to
explain the facts with full clarity to protect the work of the
generations that have contributed sweat, sacrifice and, not a few times,
even health and life to the Revolution.''
The criticism appeared unusually harsh and public in a country where
cabinet ministers are normally replaced with little explanation of the
reasons behind the changes.
Granma announced Gómez's replacement Tuesday in a typically brief
report. He was replaced by Ana Elsa Velázquez Cobiella, dean at a
teachers' college in eastern Santiago de Cuba.
Castro, who surrendered power temporarily in mid-2006 following
intestinal surgery and was officially replaced as president by his
brother Raúl in February, went on to note that he was consulted on the
decision to fire Gómez.
''In this special and important case ... I was fully consulted and
informed,'' the Cuban leader wrote. ``I therefore assume full
responsibility for this decision, whatever the reactions and
consequences may be."
In a parting shot at the ousted minister, Castro said, ``I shall never
resign myself to the idea that the desire for power be fueled by
selfishness, self-sufficiency, vanity and the alleged indispensability
of any human being.''
But there was no explanation for the reference to the dead in the column
title's and its last lines:
``I shall express my modest opinion while I can and need to do so.''
``We the living and the dead shall fight!''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/507130.html
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