By Pedro Dupre. Guest Commentary.
The Black World Today. Article Dated
7/23/2001.
In a recent speech in Havana, Fidel Castro seemed to have faltered. His
slurred speech, speaking of six provinces in Cuba, where for the last 20 odd
years there have been 14 provinces. A strange reference to some weird plan to
provide each municipality with a school all preceded what was referred to as a
fainting spell by the gagged Cuba press. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that
the years have taken its toll and that Fidel Castro is no longer in his prime.
The usual sharp mind and haranguing tongue were all but gone. A few hours later
a rejuvenated Fidel Castro conducted yet another of his lengthy speeches as if
to prove that he was still in charge of his faculties. Quoted in his tirade he
stated that he was " playing possum."
No one knows with certainty what would happen after Castro passed from this
world. The "Historicos"; rebels from the 1959 rebellion, turned
generals and ministers have degrees of control over the nation. Raul Castro,
seeing by many as the successor and rightful heir to his brother, has positioned
many of these historic figures at the helm of all industries and ministries.
This militarization of the government posts initiated after the Ochoa affair has
strengthened Raul Castro's bid for power and paved the way for a similar
situation observed in Russia, where former communist became the new capitalists.
The Miami elite represented by the Cuban American National Foundation, CANF,
whose job is to be ready for Castro's final hour, ignored this second act of
Fidel's fainting. They want to believe the maximum Leader is on his way out.
After all, they too have a government in exile they very much would like to see
in place in a post Castro Cuba. This institution is not the only one; there are
other organizations that see themselves as the future Cuban government.
The Centro de Estudios para una Opcion National (Center of Studies for a
National Option) has been busy in a series of workshops to create a Cuban
Constitution to be implemented once is OK to do so. White Cubans from academia,
exile organizations and government agencies gathered and plan among themselves
preparing the groundwork for a future Cuba.
Other people and institutions have a stake on what would happen when Castro
dies. The City of Miami and Dade County have in their vaults emergency plans for
when Castro dies. One can understand that this is a preventive measure given the
long awaited moment and the unpredictability of what would happen. One may not
be able to understand why are these plans are secret, especially if it is
assumed that the plans are solely for the implementation of safety measures and
to maintain celebrations within order.
Is it inconceivable that the US. government does not have plans of their
own, they do. Although similar to the Dade County plans, they are also secret.
This information comes from a recent article in the Miami Herald. Apparently not
even Ross Lethinen, the Cuban American Congresswoman from Florida was able to
get in on the details of this plan.
History without a doubt will repeat itself, in our nation. The hand out
government that the retiring US Armed Forces presented the Cubans in the first
decade of the 1900, more likely will be the expected scenario. The US will be
not only threading familiar waters by establishing familiar and loyal people in
other nation's government, but it will find its position more than justified by
claiming potential chaos and even potential civil strife in the beleaguered
island. Law and order will be the strategic cry to impose quarantine, or even to
disembark troops on Cuba. The legacy of the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well in
Latin America, even when there are no American lives, interest or holdings in
Cuba now, there are weapons in Cuba that may warrant an US invasion to maintain
the calm.
The Afrocubans who by all account comprise 50% of the population will be
again left out. They do not form part of the Historicos for the most part, nor
do they have any organized political force to demand an inclusion in the
leadership of their nation. Inside Cuba, Cuesta Morua one of the most vocal
Afrocuban leaders of the dissidents is a socialist in essence. Dr. Biscet, the
newly found poster child of the would-be politically correct Miami elite may be
the only one included in a transitional government post-Castro, his politics
being more in tune with the GOP than with the realities of Cuba and Afrocubans.
The lack of political will of the Afrocubans in exile to form their own
political organizations, the lack of representation on the actual Cuban
government and the abdication of their rights to vocalize their concerns as a
separate and distinct issue may be in the end what perpetuates their exclusion
from the life of the nation as participants.
Afrocubans in exile who accepted the handouts of the Miami elite and thus
compromised their ability to speak for the rest of the Afrocubans have become an
antithesis to the movement they should have been leading. Unable to bite the
hand that feeds them and fully dependent on the benevolence of their patrons,
they have once again colluded with the people who have no good design or plans
for their future, postergating the redemption of the Afrocuban people.
Copyright © 2001 The Black World Today. |