January 25, 2009
Havana - When a full-fledged riot against the government broke out on
the seaside Malecon on a steamy late-summer day in 1994, Fidel Castro
stopped the rock throwers in their tracks by appearing in the thick of
the fray.
"The same people who were throwing stones earlier started shouting,
'Viva, Fidel!'" said Lourdes, 38, who witnessed the scene from her
apartment window. "If there are problems on the street when they
announce that Fidel has died, who will calm the people?"
With questions persisting about the 82-year-old former president's
health, a growing number of Cuban government supporters are raising
concerns about new social unrest.
The latest was Castro biographer and longtime friend Ignacio Ramonet,
who outlined mounting discontent within the Cuban elite last week in an
article in the left-leaning Web site Rebelión.
For the government of Raul Castro, 77, who assumed the presidency in
February, Ramonet said, "In this time of serious difficulties due to the
recent hurricanes and the international financial crisis, its central
concern is to maintain unity in society."
Analysts as well as ordinary Cubans are divided about the chances of
unrest in this tightly controlled society. But the events of Aug. 5,
1994 — during the hardship years following the collapse of the Soviet
Union — serve as powerful reminders.
That day, thousands of Cubans gathered after authorities intervened in a
ferry hijacking. People smashed windows of shops catering to foreigners,
threw stones at police and overturned patrol cars.
Fidel Castro arrived in a jeep, waded into the protest and calmed the
rioters by announcing that he would not stop anyone wanting to leave.
People in inner tubes and rickety vessels hurled themselves from the
seawall for the 90-mile journey to Florida. Nearly 40,000 Cubans left.
Lourdes said new disturbances weren't out of the question.
"God knows we could have a repeat," she said. "Raul can't keep this
together. The people aren't with him. They want change."
Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst and Cuba expert, said a younger
generation of Cubans has become frustrated by the lack of significant
reforms under Raul Castro.
"Expectations have been raised and not fulfilled, and you could
postulate that there might be more pent up frustration, even anger, that
could conceivably spill into the streets" following Fidel Castro's
death, Latell said.
Ramonet, in his article, cited a growing chorus of Cuban intellectuals
and artists who have expressed concerns about the failure to implement
reforms. One of the more scathing critics was the popular Cuban singer
Pablo Milanes.
"I don't trust any Cuban leader who is older than 75," Milanes told a
Madrid newspaper last month. "They all had their moments of glory, which
were many, but they're now ready to be retired."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flbnotebook0125sbjan25,0,4629241.story
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