raul castro Watch – Day 8: Pirates of Penzance Edition
Today is the 8th day that raul castro has been el lider maximo of the island of Cuba and he has yet to make a public appearance. There are some major rumors and much specualtion going around as to the fate of both fidel "rigor mortis" castro and his brother raul "ahoy mateys" castro.
Mahone Dunbar at Paxety has the scoop on the latter, having found raul off off off Broadway starring in "Tyrants of the Caribbean."
Oh, how can you DO THIS to Johnny Depp.....????
Is this as big as it sounds?????
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060807/ts_nm/cuba_castro_succession_dc_2
Wow, it sounds like a different story all together from what Lage and Alarcon have been saying. Maybe the succession is permanent. I wonder why Chavez has not traveled to see Castro? Could it be Castro is not lucid? This whole situation is so crazy.
I've been working phones for days including those of people who, for some reason, know more than others without being compromised. Some details have been emerging which I'm trying to verify:
There is a power struggle going on inside the nomenklatura contesting Raul's leadership. Several factions: The die hard Fidelistas (including Perez Roque), the Raulistas (many senior military and people involved with "big tourism money" in Cuba who want a "Chinese solution")... and - most interesting - another faction fighting Raul, comprised of ex Ochoa guys who were retired (and not killed) in 1989. One guy I know personally. They have some younger military and civil servants and seem to advocate a sort of Cuban perestroika. There even is a 4th faction, but I have few details about it.
Another thing that's emerging: Fidel did NOT sign his transfer of power, the signature is forged.
There is more to come.
Eleggua-
At risk of being accused of spamming the comments, I wonder if you could pass that info on to the folks at Free Republic? This thread is on topic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1679300/posts If you aren't a member there and don't feel like signing up, let me know and I'll copy your post over there.
Thanks!
I'm not a member but feel free to copy it over as long as you link back to Babalu.
Please note that this is not idle gossip, but also not confirmed facts in a strict journalistic sense. I'm putting together small pieces of a puzzle here.
There is no such thing as a "peaceful succession". It's going to turn ugly very soon.
Now if that were true why wouldn't the U.S. want to expose that. To me it is another shining example of how the Cuban people have no say in how they are governed. Bringing these power stuggles to light would make it impossible to deny that Cuba's ruling elite have no concern for the people who inahbit the island.
Bravo!