As a response of sorts to Alberto’s post below, the Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer offers his own view of the shakeup at the top of the regime:
My opinion: My humble guess is that what happened last week is a combination of the second and third theories. Fidel Castro’s article stating that Pérez Roque and Lage had given Cuba’s enemies ”illusions” of change on the island leads me to believe that their ouster was a defensive move by a decrepit dictatorship.
It has happened time and again. Every time external events threaten to press Cuba toward democracy, or that somebody within the Cuban Cabinet emerges as a potential successor to the Castro dynasty, the Castro brothers have reacted by circling the wagons and retrenching to hard-line stands.
There are some in the Herald who DO get it.
Andres Oppenheimer wrote a book called “Castro’s final hour” more than fifteen years ago.
Don’t even joke to him about that…he’s very sensitive about the topic of the title. That being said it was actually a good book and his arguement stated above dovetails very nicely with what emerged in the book, particulary with the Ochoa mess.