US News and World Report has published an interview with Brian Latell, author of “After fidel”:
Who is Raúl Castro, and how likely is it that he will retain the reins of power if Fidel abdicates or dies?
As I show in After Fidel, the first biography ever written about Raúl Castro, he lacks many of Fidel’s leadership qualities. He doesn’t do speeches very well, doesn’t like to give speeches, doesn’t have the same kind of direct contact with the Cuban people that Fidel has always had. He is not an intellectual like Fidel. He likes to stay in the background. But he has many other qualities that compensate. He is very, very smart, and he is powerful. He is the regime’s best organizer, an experienced manager and organization man. He will run Cuba very differently, with a more collective leadership, sharing responsibilities–and titles–with other civilian and military officials. He won’t be the constant center of attention, the single source of authority that Fidel has been all these years.
Whatever happened to the rumor that he was homosexual? I know it’s not very PC to talk about this. But since forever I’ve heard the “elders” in my family start conversations with: Fidel es un hijo-e-puta y Raul es maric*n. Then there’s articles that say that’s just an urban legend. And then I talk to people who were part of the Ejercito Rebelde and they say that everybody in the Army in the early days of the Revolution knew he was gay. And let’s be real here, whether this is true or false is vital to him maintaining power in Cuba. Not exactly San Francisco, if you know what I mean.
Its interesting that his daugther is a champion for homosexuals. Must run in the blood.
“He is not an intellectual like fidel” Please!!!
If fidel WAS an intellectual, the bar has been lowered way too much. If I’m not mistaken, fidel did not even finish law school (I’m not sure how he got that far). He may have been politically savvy, but that is far from being an intellectual.