As Castro Fades, A Crop Of New Leaders Interviews with two younger political figures suggest a gradual opening both economically and socially.
By Tom Fawthrop The Christian Science Monitor December 27, 2006 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1227/p06s01-woam.html HAVANA, CUBA In a country that is in the process of bidding a long farewell to its ageing revolutionaries, Mariela Castro brings an expectation of change along with an air of youthful passion. As the director of Cenesex (the National Sex Education Center) Ms. Castro is eager to consider where Cuba should go in a postrevolutionary era. "We have many contradictions in Cuba," says Castro, the daughter of Raul Castro, Cuba's de facto leader and brother of ailing President Fidel Castro. A Spanish doctor arrived in Cuba last week, reenergizing speculation about the health of the Cuban leader, who has not been seen in public since undergoing surgery in July. "We need to experiment and to test what really works, to make public ownership more effective, rather than simply adopting wholesale free-market reforms," Ms. Castro says. Leaders like Ms. Castro may indicate the extent to which a post-Castro Cuba may be willing to liberalize, both economically and socially. As Cuba's old-guard leadership fades, this new generation - made up primarily of the sons and daughters of those who fought in the 1959 Communist revolution - is perhaps more sympathetic to economic reforms and more-liberal social policies. Nevertheless, Cuba-watchers and experts have ruled out any dramatic lurch toward a liberal market economy that might undermine the island nation's heritage as the persistent holdout of traditional Communist policies. More relaxed social attitudes may also evolve gradually. Still, no one doubts that change is afoot. "The transition in Cuba has already taken place" and this new generation has a key role to play, says Richard Gott, a Latin American analyst and former foreign correspondent for the London-based The Guardian newspaper. "Carlos Lage will be the brains behind the new government. He, together with Julio Soberon at the central bank, will seek to chart a new economic course." Now Raul Castro has started to echo some of his daughter's sentiments. Addressing university students, he urged that they should ''fearlessly engage in public debate and analysis," according to Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. Cuba is one of several Latin American countries that once harassed homosexuals as a matter of policy. But Mariela Castro, who is also an executive member of the World Association for Sexual Health, insists that job discrimination and mass arrests are a thing of the past. "[Homosexuals] still sometimes face arrest by bigoted police" says Castro, adding that she has sometimes clashed with the authorities in her efforts to release gay men and women from prison. "Now, society is more relaxed. There is no official repression of gays and lesbians," she argues confidently. A writer turned politico Cuban writer and culture minister Abel Prieto has also emerged as an influential power broker in a changing Cuba. Since joining the state bureaucracy and the politburo, the long-haired, middle-aged minister still exudes a passion for culture and a common touch. In response to a question about the conflict of interest between writers and the state, Mr. Prieto laughs, saying that, "sometimes I feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I hope that artists and writers feel that I am still one of them." Unlike many members of the government, Prieto is very candid as he speaks about allegations that the Cuban government censors political websites. "It would be a delusion to think we could hide that torrent of information," he insists, referring to anti- Castro websites. "The only possibility is to beat them with a better concept of life." Prieto also defended the arrest of the dissident writer Raul Rivero in 2003. "He was not arrested for his views, but for receiving US funding for his collaboration with a country that has besieged our island," argues the minister, referring to the 45-year-long US trade embargo. An avid fan of the Beatles since the 1970s when their music was essentially banned by the Cuban state, Prieto has led an appreciation campaign of John Lennon. In 2000, he unveiled a statue and dedicated "John Lennon Park" to the musician's memory. Many Cubans joke that he is not as much a Marxist-Leninist as a "Marxist- Lennonist." Prieto, because of a moment on Cuban television five years ago, is known as one of the few Cabinet ministers who has ever dared to challenge the president. Cubans recall a news segment in which Castro and Prieto appeared together. After Castro blamed his minister for the fact that so many artists were leaving the country to work abroad, Prieto defended himself. Millions watched as their supreme leader accepted his error and apologized to Abel Prieto. "Prieto is extremely important. He has carved out a sizable space for cultural expression [for] many Cuban artists and writers since he became minister of culture," says Julia Sweig, director of the Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. In a Foreign Affairs article, written after a lengthy visit to Cuba in November, Ms. Sweig indicated that expectations were high among Cuban officials that the government could move forward after Castro. "People at all levels of the Cuban government and the Communist Party were enormously confident of the regime's ability to survive Fidel's passing," Ms. Sweig wrote. That confidence was apparent in Raul Castro's speech to the opening session of the new parliament last week. "Tell it like it is - tell the truth without justifications, because we are tired of justifications in this revolution," the acting president urged his ministers, according to the youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde. US economic sanctions irrelevant Attempts by the Bush administration to set the agenda for change in Cuba, says Sweig, appear to be increasingly irrelevant to the reality inside the country, as a new generation gains increasing clout. Gott, the Latin American analyst, says that both Ms. Castro and Prieto are figures to watch. "Mariela Castro is a more than competent member of the Castro clan - she will have an important role in social affairs," he says. "The genial Abel Prieto might well be promoted from the culture ministry to something more taxing." _____________________________________________ Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. Submit via email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Frequently asked questions: <portside.org/faq> Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe Search the archives: portside.org/archive *** International Herald Tribune Tuesday, December 26, 2006 In Somalia, a reckless U.S. proxy war By Salim Lone Tribune Media Services Nairobi - Undeterred by the horrors and setbacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, the Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim world. With full U.S. backing and military training, at least 15,000 Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia in an illegal war of aggression against the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls almost the entire south of the country. As with Iraq in 2003, the United States has cast this as a war to curtail terrorism, but its real goal is to obtain a direct foothold in a highly strategic region by establishing a client regime there. The Horn of Africa is newly oil-rich, and lies just miles from Saudi Arabia, overlooking the daily passage of large numbers of oil tankers and warships through the Red Sea. General John Abizaid, the current U.S. military chief of the Iraq war, was in Ethiopia this month, and President Hu Jintao of China visited Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia earlier this year to pursue oil and trade agreements. The U.S. instigation of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, two of world's poorest countries already struggling with massive humanitarian disasters, is reckless in the extreme. Unlike in the run-up to Iraq, independent experts, including from the European Union, were united in warning that this war could destabilize the whole region even if America succeeds in its goal of toppling the Islamic Courts. An insurgency by Somalis, millions of whom live in Kenya and Ethiopia, will surely ensue, and attract thousands of new anti-U.S. militants and terrorists. With so much of the world convulsed by crisis, little attention has been paid to this unfolding disaster in the Horn. The UN Security Council, however, did take up the issue, and in another craven act which will further cement its reputation as an anti-Muslim body, bowed to American and British pressure to authorize a regional peacekeeping force to enter Somalia to protect the transitional government, which is fighting the Islamic Courts. The new UN resolution states that the world body acted to "restore peace and stability." But as all major international news organizations have reported, this year Somalia finally experienced its first respite from 16 years of utter lawlessness and terror at the hands of the marauding warlords who drove out UN peacekeepers in 1993, when 18 American soldiers were killed. Since 1993, there had been no Security Council interest in sending peacekeepers to Somalia, but as peace and order took hold, a multilateral force was suddenly deemed necessary -- because it was the Islamic Courts Union that had brought about this stability. Astonishingly, the Islamists had succeeded in defeating the warlords primarily through rallying people to their side by creating law and order through the application of Shariah law, which Somalis universally practice. The transitional government, on the other hand, is dominated by the warlords and terrorists who drove out American forces in 1993. Organized in Kenya by U.S. regional allies, it is so completely devoid of internal support that it has turned to Somalia's arch-enemy, Ethiopia, for assistance. If this war continues, it will affect the whole region, do serious harm to U.S. interests and threaten Kenya, the only island of stability in this corner of Africa. Ethiopia is at even greater risk, as a dictatorship with little popular support and beset also by two large internal revolts, by the Ogadenis and Oromos. It is also mired in a conflict with Eritrea, which has denied it secure access to seaports. The best antidote to terrorism in Somalia is stability, which the Islamic Courts have provided. The Islamists have strong public support, which has grown in the face of U.S. and Ethiopian interventions. As in other Muslim-Western conflicts, the world needs to engage with the Islamists to secure peace. *** Are They Out of Their Minds? Please forward widely! Dear friend of United for Peace and Justice, With the situation in Iraq spiraling out of control, Bush Administration officials have recently floated the idea of a "troop surge" -- sending as many as 30,000 more troops to Iraq. With U.S. soldiers being maimed and killed with growing frequency, and the number of U.S. deaths in Iraq approaching the grim milestone of 3,000, this startlingly stupid plan can only mean more deaths -- both U.S. and Iraqi -- and a deeper quagmire. http://www.unitedforpeace.org But far from rejecting it, leading Democrats, including Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, have expressed support for the notion of sending more troops to Iraq. Obviously, they haven't been listening to the will of the people, whose opposition to the war gave them control of the Congress. Only 12% support sending more troops to Iraq -- the overwhelming majority want the troops to come home now. So we need to speak louder than ever: 1) Call or email the office of Senator Harry Reid and tell him you expect the Democrats to follow the clear wishes of the electorate and bring the troops home from Iraq. Call Reid at 202-224-2158 or 202-224-7003 or email his chief of staff at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2) Plan to mark the 3,000th U.S. death with a vigil or other event in your community. Under the slogan, "Not One More Death, Not One More Dollar," the American Friends Service Committee, a member group of UFPJ, is coordinating events all around the country. Learn more at www.afsc.org/3000 3) Now more than ever, be sure to join us in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, January 27, for a massive peace march calling on Congress to use its power to bring the troops home now! Leaflets, web banners, ride and housing boards, and much more for this urgently needed protest are available at www.unitedforpeace.org With hopes for peace and justice in this holiday season, UFPJ National Staff P.S. As you make your end-of-the-year donations, we hope you will remember United for Peace and Justice. Your financial support makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work. 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