Raul Castro Takes Reign Over Cuba
In what was almost a forgone conclusion, Raul Castro is now President(Dictator) of Cuba. Raul Castro is brother of Fidel Castro (former President/Dictator of Cuba). Fidel had recommended Raul for the job after resigning last week. Fidel Castro resigned due to health. Chances are nothing will change in Cuba, including the last name of the “President”.
HAVANA - Raul Castro was selected Sunday to be Cuba’s president, succeeding his sick brother Fidel Castro, who retired five days ago after 49 years at the helm of the West’s last communist country, a deputy said.
The transition was not likely to bring a major shift in policies of the communist government that have put it at odds with the United States. But many Cubans were hoping it would open the door to modest economic reforms and improvement in their daily lives.
The parliament selected a new 31-member ruling body known as the Council of State to lead the country. The council’s president serves as the head of state and government.
Source: MSNBC
Photo Source: MSNBC
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain Wants Castro To Meet With Fellow Socialist/Communist
Republican Senator John McCain stated his feelings about Fidel Castro earlier this week. McCain said that he hoped that he hoped that he gets to see Karl Marx soon. McCain also said that he doesn’t think real change can happen in Cuba until Castro dies.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain says he doesn’t look for any major political reforms in Cuba until after Fidel Castro dies, adding he hopes that’s not far off.
As McCain put it during a campaign stop in Indiana Friday, “I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon.”
That’s a reference to the author of “The Communist Manifesto,” who died in 1883.
McCain’s comments follow an argument between Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over the best way to push for change in Cuba.
Castro himself has responded to the barbed interest in his decision to step down this week as Cuba’s leader.
Eighty-one years-old and infirm, Castro says he’s enjoyed seeing “the embarrassing position of all the presidential candidates” making “demands of Cuba.” And he says he made the right call by
stepping down.
Source: CNN
Sphere: Related ContentFidel Castro Resigns, Nothing Changes
Fidel Castro long time Dictator/President of Cuba has announced that he will not be seeking another term as citing poor health as the reason. Raul Castro (Fidel’s younger brother) will take over rule of Cuba. President Bush’s administration states that the U.S. has no plans to lift embargo sanctions at this time, but hopes that this does open the door for Democratic Rule in Cuba in the future. Chances are that nothing will change, at least not soon, what happens when something happens to Raul, he is 76? Is there another Castro waiting in the wings?
Administration officials led by President Bush expressed hope that Castro’s decision to step down would usher in a period of democratic transition on the communist-run island, but stressed they doubted that would happen under Raul Castro and said it was unlikely the nearly 50-year-old U.S. economic embargo on Cuba would be lifted.
“I can’t imagine that happening any time soon,” Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said when asked if Washington would lift the embargo, which has been the centerpiece of American policy toward Cuba since it was first imposed in 1960 and strengthened in 1962.
The ailing Castro, 81, who has called the trade embargo “criminal” and claims its impact has run into the tens of billions of dollars, announced earlier Tuesday he would not accept another term in office when parliament meets to elect a new president this weekend. Despite constant U.S. criticism and sanctions, Castro outlasted nine U.S. presidents.
In Rwanda, Bush said he hoped the end of Castro’s presidency will launch a transition to democracy for the Cuban people.
“They’re the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro,” he told a news conference. “They’re the ones who were put in prison because of their beliefs. They’re the ones who have been denied their right to live in a free society. So I view this as a period of transition and it should be the beginning of the democratic transition in Cuba.”
The State Department offered similar sentiments, but stressed it was not optimistic for any kind of quick change under Raul Castro, to whom Fidel ceded power temporarily in July 2006.
“It will be significant if in fact it leads to greater openness and freedom for the Cuban people and ultimately to a democratic transition,” he said. But, he cautioned that “the general analysis is that Raul Castro is ‘Fidel lite’.”"He is simply a continuation of the Castro regime, of the dictatorship,” Casey said, adding: “There are some very clear indications out there that what this transition would potentially become, or at least what Fidel and his minions would like it to become, is a transfer of authority and power from one dictator to dictator-lite, from Fidel to Raul.”
Casey said the United States stood ready, however, to assist the Cuban people in a true transition to democracy.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami-area Republican who was born in Havana, said Castro’s resignation was irrelevant because his regime had already “done great harm to the suffering Cuban people.”
“It matters nothing at all whether Fidel, Raul or any other thug is named head of anything in Cuba,” she said. “What the people want is freedom to vote in multiparty elections that are internationally supervised and freedom to express their dissent from the oppressive regime. The Communist machinery is enslaving them so it doesn’t matter who the thug of the moment will be.”
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who is of Cuban descent, said Castro’s resignation “is not the cause for celebration that some would believe.”
“This does not represent the replacement of totalitarianism with democracy. Instead, it is the replacement of one dictator with another,” he said in a statement.
The Coast Guard, meanwhile, has not added any additional patrols in light of Castro’s resignation, said Coast Guard spokesman Chris O’Neil.
Bush said he anticipates debate about Cuba’s future, and that some people will say “Let’s promote stability.”
“In the meantime, political prisoners will rot in prison and the human condition will remain pathetic in many cases,” he said.
Bush noted that he had met with the families of some of prisoners, and that their release should be the first step of any transition to democracy.
“It just breaks your heart to realize that people have been thrown in prisons because they dare speak out,” he said.
While Bush expressed hope for democratic change, Castro’s decision appeared to position his brother, Raul, 76, to succeed him as president.
“The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy,” Bush said.
“Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections — and I mean free, and I mean fair — not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy,” Bush said.
“The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty,” Bush said
Source: Fox News
Photo Source: livinginperu.com
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