Pedro Dupre

In a recent speech in Havana, Fidel Castro seemed to have faltered. His slurred speech, speaking of six provinces in Cuba, where for the last 20 odd years there have been 14 provinces. A strange reference to some weird plan to provide each municipality with a school all preceded what was referred to as a fainting spell by the gagged Cuba press. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the years have taken its toll and that Fidel Castro is no longer in his prime. The usual sharp mind and haranguing tongue were all but gone. A few hours later a rejuvenated Fidel Castro conducted yet another of his lengthy speeches as if to prove that he was still in charge of his faculties. Quoted in his tirade he stated that he was " playing possum."

No one knows with certainty what would happen after Castro passed from this world. The "Historicos"; rebels from the 1959 rebellion, turned generals and ministers have degrees of control over the nation. Raul Castro, seeing by many as the successor and rightful heir to his brother, has positioned many of these historic figures at the helm of all industries and ministries. This militarization of the government posts initiated after the Ochoa affair has strengthened Raul Castro's bid for power and paved the way for a similar situation observed in Russia, where former communist became the new capitalists.

The Miami elite represented by the Cuban American National Foundation, CANF, whose job is to be ready for Castro's final hour, ignored this second act of Fidel's fainting. They want to believe the maximum Leader is on his way out. After all, they too have a government in exile they very much would like to see in place in a post Castro Cuba. This institution is not the only one; there are other organizations that see themselves as the future Cuban government.

The Centro de Estudios para una Opcion National (Center of Studies for a National Option) has been busy in a series of workshops to create a Cuban Constitution to be implemented once is OK to do so. White Cubans from academia, exile organizations and government agencies gathered and plan among themselves preparing the groundwork for a future Cuba.

Other people and institutions have a stake on what would happen when Castro dies. The City of Miami and Dade County have in their vaults emergency plans for when Castro dies. One can understand that this is a preventive measure given the long awaited moment and the unpredictability of what would happen. One may not be able to understand why are these plans are secret, especially if it is assumed that the plans are solely for the implementation of safety measures and to maintain celebrations within order.

Is it inconceivable that the US. government does not have plans of their own, they do. Although similar to the Dade County plans, they are also secret. This information comes from a recent article in the Miami Herald. Apparently not even Ross Lethinen, the Cuban American Congresswoman from Florida was able to get in on the details of this plan.

History without a doubt will repeat itself, in our nation. The hand out government that the retiring US Armed Forces presented the Cubans in the first decade of the 1900, more likely will be the expected scenario. The US will be not only threading familiar waters by establishing familiar and loyal people in other nation's government, but it will find its position more than justified by claiming potential chaos and even potential civil strife in the beleaguered island. Law and order will be the strategic cry to impose quarantine, or even to disembark troops on Cuba. The legacy of the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well in Latin America, even when there are no American lives, interest or holdings in Cuba now, there are weapons in Cuba that may warrant an US invasion to maintain the calm.

The Afrocubans who by all account comprise 50% of the population will be again left out. They do not form part of the Historicos for the most part, nor do they have any organized political force to demand an inclusion in the leadership of their nation. Inside Cuba, Cuesta Morua one of the most vocal Afrocuban leaders of the dissidents is a socialist in essence. Dr. Biscet, the newly found poster child of the would-be politically correct Miami elite may be the only one included in a transitional government post-Castro, his politics being more in tune with the GOP than with the realities of Cuba and Afrocubans.

The lack of political will of the Afrocubans in exile to form their own political organizations, the lack of representation on the actual Cuban government and the abdication of their rights to vocalize their concerns as a separate and distinct issue may be in the end what perpetuates their exclusion from the life of the nation as participants.

Afrocubans in exile who accepted the handouts of the Miami elite and thus compromised their ability to speak for the rest of the Afrocubans have become an antithesis to the movement they should have been leading. Unable to bite the hand that feeds them and fully dependent on the benevolence of their patrons, they have once again colluded with the people who have no good design or plans for their future, postergating the redemption of the Afrocuban people.

Copyright © 2001 The Black World Today.