Friday, July 27, 2007

Cuba's year without Fidel

Yesterday marked the 54th anniversary of the beginning of the revolution that brought dictator Fidel Castro into power in Cuba. Yesterday also marked the first year of Fidel's unprecedented absence from Cuban life since 1953.

Last year, Fidel traveled to two rallies for his annual July 26th speeches. And then he disappeared, for good. After suffering an unknown intestinal ailment and transferring power to his only slightly less elderly brother Raúl, Fidel has been photographed, videotaped, interviewed over the phone, and feted by fellow autocrats from Vietnam and Venezuela, but he hasn't been seen in public by anyone. Fidel's appetite for enervating four hour speeches and interminable television appearances quickly sparked rumors that the "real" caudillo had died on the operating table, and the "recuperating Fidel" (as seen above) was nothing more than a body double for a dictator now pushing up daisies.

Do I believe Fidel is dead? No, but I believe Fidelismo is dead, and has been dead since Cuba's oil-for-sugar deal with Soviet Union collapsed. The lingering 17 year hangover has seen the corpse animated, like a zombie, but the consciousness had been snuffed out. Cuba is now in a bizarre holding pattern, with Fidel still officially alive, while Fidel's revolution is dead but unburied. The entire world appears to be holding its breath, waiting to bury the dictatorship the second the dictator himself expires (except, of course, the people who Fidelismo even more than Fidel does). Even Raúl himself has seen the writing on the wall, but he too feels compelled to wait until Fidel's body is in the grave before he starts shoveling the dirt of la revolución on his coffin.

Après le déluge, que vient après?

UPDATE: Apparently, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal linked to this article, but it's for subscribers only.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We can only hope the time of El Lider Maximo is at an end. He has murdered, tortured and caused the deaths of thousands in Latin America and Africa. The World wil be a much better place without him.

His revolution, a catastrophic failure, has lasted because it has been economically propped up by Russian communists and then by the Venezuelan communist now the dictator in that oil rich land.

There is not any country which accepts currency from Cuba - it is worthless. People are hungry and ill educated as in all left wing society. Medical care is available, but there are no drugs- drugs were never subject to the embargo.

The easiest way to depose this cruel and dspotic regime would be to flood this impoverished island with food. Food clearly labeled " Del Pueblo Americano al Pueblo Cubano.