Cubans Puzzled by Talk of Castro ‘Succession’
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HAVANA — The first use of the word “succession” by a Cuban official in relation to the illness of Fidel Castro prompted further flurries of speculation in Havana and Miami yesterday.
A writer and member of the Council of State, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, told a press conference in the capital Havana that America “had not expected that a peaceful succession was possible. A peaceful succession has taken place in Cuba.”
It was not clear whether his use of the term implied that Mr. Castro’s hand-over of power to his brother Raul Castro will turn out to be permanent.
Fidel Castro, who turns 80 next week, remained convalescing out of sight one week after surgery for internal bleeding forced him to place his brother provisionally in charge of the island that he has led for 47 years.
It is likely to be too early for a final decision on what part he will play in future government, but Cuban exiles in Miami were treating Mr. Fernandez Retamar’s words as setting the stage for a changeover to a more collective style of governance.
They assume that it would remain, however, a communist regime with the familiar faces of the Havana politburo still running every aspect of daily life with Raul Castro “first among equals” and Fidel Castro giving advice.
Well versed in reading between the lines of official announcements from Havana, exiles said that the evolving situation after Mr. Castro’s emergency surgery was not unlike the more collective style of government put in place in Moscow after Stalin’s death in 1953. In the latest of several messages from Washington aimed at encouraging Cubans to push for change, President Bush said Cubans should decide their own form of government.
“Cuba has the possibility of transforming itself from a tyrannical situation to a different type of society,” Mr. Bush told a press conference.
In a television interview, president of the Cuban national assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, expressed satisfaction at the smooth handling of the crisis and took a dig at Mr. Castro’s opponents.
“All those who have been trying to fool the world and put out the idea that something terrible would happen in Cuba, … that there would be great instability, the door slammed on them, and they must have very swollen hands now.”
