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Cuba Vows Post-Castro Communism
NewsMax ^ | 7/16/06 | AP

Posted on 07/16/2006 4:02:29 PM PDT by wagglebee

What will Cuba be like when Fidel Castro is gone? Washington and Cuba have - no surprise - startlingly different versions of a post-Castro Cuba, and many dissidents on the island complain they will be caught in the middle.

In Washington's scenario, presented this week by a presidential commission, a democratic Cuba will endorse multiparty elections and free markets and become a new ally to be rebuilt with American assistance after nearly five decades of communism.

But Castro, who apparently enjoys good health and turns 80 on Aug. 13, has been fortifying the ruling Communist Party to ensure the status quo long after his death. He plans to hand over power to his 75-year-old brother Raul, the first vice president of Cuba's Council of State.

The key aim of the 93-page report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba is to halt that succession, using diplomacy to enlist Cuban citizens and other countries to demand a new government after Fidel dies.

It recommends that the United States spend $80 million over two years to encourage that change, saying Cubans could appeal to the United States for food, water and other aid. It envisions U.S. technicians rebuilding schools, highways, bridges, financial specialists designing a new tax system and the United States helping Cuba join the International Monetary Fund.

"The greatest guarantor of genuine stability in Cuba is the rapid restoration of sovereignty to the Cuban people through free and fair, multiparty elections," says the report that was released July 10.

Other experts say the commission is being unrealistic.

"We need a reality check here," said Wayne Smith, America's top diplomat to Havana from 1979 to 1982. "Anyone who knows Cuba knows the Cuban people aren't going to rise up against a successor regime."

Dissidents in Cuba say they appreciate the gesture, but fear it will backfire and lead to more arrests. In 2003, 75 dissidents were arrested and accused of being "mercenaries" receiving U.S. aid - a charge the activists denied.

Opposition member Manuel Cuesta Morua called the U.S. offer a "poisonous embrace."

"Those are 80 million arguments for the Cuban government to make it seem all Cuban dissidents are financed by the United States," he said.

The dissident community has not fully recovered from the 2003 arrests, and no Cuban opposition leader has emerged with widespread support.

Cuba also lacks the powerful nongovernment institutions that existed in communist-era Poland, where the Solidarity movement, organized around a strong Roman Catholic church and labor unions, managed to topple the Communist leadership.

The U.S. report has been well-received in Miami, where U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-born Republican, said it shows "the strong commitment of President Bush to help the Cuban people free themselves from the shackles of their brutal oppressor."

But Smith calls the U.S. report "pure pie-in-the-sky."

"The reality will end up being somewhere between those two visions, and probably closer to the Cuban succession plan _ with the addition of popular pressure for economic reforms," said Smith, who heads the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy, a foreign policy institute in Washington.

Long a taboo topic, Cuba's planned succession has been discussed more openly in recent months with Raul Castro, the longtime defense minister, appearing frequently in state media to insist the party will continue its dominant role.

If Raul Castro does succeed his brother, the United States will likely be sidelined while other countries interact with Cuba's new leadership, said Philip Peters of the Lexington Institute, a think tank outside Washington.

That's because the United States in 1996 tightened its Cuba sanctions and prohibited aid to Cuba until multiparty elections are planned, political prisoners are released, and both Castro brothers are out of power.

Peters said the report only hardens Washington's position on Cuba.

"The report leaves no doubt that the administration will not support in Cuba the kind of change it applauds in China - economic liberalization without significant political change," Peters wrote this week.

Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon said he believes the report's classified section contains plans to attack the island or assassinate its leaders.

"We have the right to expect the worst," said Alarcon, referring to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and earlier U.S. assassination attempts against Fidel Castro.


TOPICS: Cuba; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: castro; communism
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One of Reagan's few mistakes was not invading Cuba the day after we went into Grenada back in 1983.
1 posted on 07/16/2006 4:02:30 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: wagglebee

I have predicted several times that Bush would oversee the birth of post-Castro Cuba.

Well, we're on our second term now, but there is still Jeb Bush, maybe. So I'm sticking with my prediction. We'll dance on his grave, and then forget where he was buried.


2 posted on 07/16/2006 4:06:58 PM PDT by marron
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To: wagglebee
JFK had an agreement with the Soviet Union not to ever invade Cuba. Missile crisis agreement terms, I believe.
3 posted on 07/16/2006 4:07:32 PM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: wagglebee
But Castro, who apparently enjoys good health and turns 80 on Aug. 13, has been fortifying the ruling Communist Party to ensure the status quo long after his death. He plans to hand over power to his 75-year-old brother Raul, the first vice president of Cuba's Council of State.

75? Uhhhh..Throw that by me once again...

4 posted on 07/16/2006 4:07:43 PM PDT by Screamname (Pray for me, Hillary is my Senator.)
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To: wagglebee

The Real Cuba, after 47 years of communism:

http://www.therealcuba.com/

Look at the photos. Havana, once one of the most beautiful cities, is crumbling. So is the entire intrastructure. The people are slaves to the government. Surely they are all secretly praying for the death of their dictator.


5 posted on 07/16/2006 4:08:56 PM PDT by i_dont_chat (I have the right to offend. You can take offense or not.)
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To: ncountylee

But Reagan had no such agreement, in 1983, the Soviets were seriously bogged down in Afghanistan and I have a feeling that even they were starting to realize that Castro was nothing more than a thorn in our side, but he was costing the USSR a ton of money.


6 posted on 07/16/2006 4:10:25 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: wagglebee

Boy, I'll bet that announcement was met with relief in Cuba..

Semper Fi


7 posted on 07/16/2006 4:12:22 PM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: Screamname

this little news item just convinces me that the rumors that Castro is close to death are probably true - this rumor keeps cropping up again and again, and tracks the glorification of his brother taking place in the Cuban media. time for the US to "help out" a popular uprising in cuba...


8 posted on 07/16/2006 4:13:06 PM PDT by chilepepper (The map is not the territory -- Alfred Korzybski)
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To: ncountylee
well, we certainly don't want to upset the Soviet Union!
9 posted on 07/16/2006 4:14:49 PM PDT by chilepepper (The map is not the territory -- Alfred Korzybski)
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To: river rat
I saw a picture once of a sign in Cuba which said:

Socialismo o Muerto. (Socialism or Death).

Underneath that some brave sould had scrawled "Que es la diferencia?" (What is the difference.)

L

10 posted on 07/16/2006 4:15:35 PM PDT by Lurker (2 months and still no Bill from Congressman Pence. What is he milking squids for the ink?)
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To: i_dont_chat

The irony is that Cuba was the wealthiest nation in the Caribbean in the late 50's. The have more natural resources and people I know who went there in the 40's and 50's say that their beaches are probably the nicest in the region. Plus they are the closest (and therefore most convenient) island to the US and our tourist dollars.

Without Castro and communism, Cuba would become very prosperous once again.


11 posted on 07/16/2006 4:17:13 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: chilepepper

I was thinking the same thing.


12 posted on 07/16/2006 4:18:39 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the occupation media.)
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To: wagglebee; JLO; LS; All

.


And yet, it's still...


ELIAN's -Cold Dead Eyes- in Cuba

http://www.Freerepublic.com/forum/a395a99a7020f.htm

.


13 posted on 07/16/2006 4:19:29 PM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: wagglebee

Geeezzz...I thought Castro was dead...he also has/had advanced PARKINSON...wonder which it is...dead or alive...knowing how communist are, if he's dead we'll not know it for a while...not much truth comes out of these regimes. Raul is 75 way to old...he'll be dead soon too.


14 posted on 07/16/2006 4:24:19 PM PDT by shield (A wise man's heart is at his RIGHT hand; but a fool's heart at his LEFT. Ecc. 10:2)
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To: wagglebee

Yeah, says who? Castro?


15 posted on 07/16/2006 4:26:08 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: shield

I think it is quite possible that he is dead. With all of the rumors that have been floating around the past few weeks, I think the Cubans would have brought him out in public if it was at all possible.


16 posted on 07/16/2006 4:26:56 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: chilepepper

If he is putting his brother who is 75 in his place, he sure as hell doesn`t have many people he can trust. His brother can die before he does!


17 posted on 07/16/2006 4:27:55 PM PDT by Screamname (Pray for me, Hillary is my Senator.)
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To: chilepepper
Oh yes, how could I forget! Did you ever see this? LOL!


18 posted on 07/16/2006 4:30:39 PM PDT by Screamname (Pray for me, Hillary is my Senator.)
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To: i_dont_chat

On the other hand, they've got some swell beaches. Maybe after a generation of living through a workers paradise, the Cuban population will have developed a certain...scepticism about socialism. If so, they might make a great 51st state. Sort of a yin to Floriduhs yang.


19 posted on 07/16/2006 4:34:06 PM PDT by Thudd
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To: wagglebee
Cubans would have brought him out in public if it was at all possible.

More like CASTRO himself, he would have been parading before the cameras and of course CNN would have been right there. Then again with last stages of PARKINSON...it's not a pretty picture.

20 posted on 07/16/2006 4:38:20 PM PDT by shield (A wise man's heart is at his RIGHT hand; but a fool's heart at his LEFT. Ecc. 10:2)
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