Council for Foreign Relations  member and Cuba Study Group "expert" Julia Sweig, an unapologetic apologist for the Castro dictatorship in Cuba, tries her best to put a happy face on the farcical elections taking place in Cuba today. Turns out Ms. Sweig's  best is not good enough, but what can one expect from an article where Sweig tells us the era of the Castros in Cuba is over while the Castro family dictatorship remains firmly in place and continues to tighten its grip on power and the Cuban people.

"Next month Raul Castro begins his second and very likely final five-year term as president of the Cuban republic. The slate of candidates represents a big demographic and political step forward. Some 67 percent of the candidates for 612 seats are completely new picks, and of these, more than 70 percent were born after 1959. Women comprise 49 percent of the candidates and Afro descendants 37 percent. Cuban voters will be asked to check yea or nay from this new list, so it's not a direct competition. But if you want to understand where the successors to the post post-Castro era may come from, I'd look at this new group."