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Raul Castro still controls Cuba because he still controls the Communist Party

Raul Castro ‘steps down’ . . . and remains in complete control of Cuba



Raul Castro ‘steps down’ . . . and remains in complete control of Cuba Maybe you don’t remember when we used to pay attention to the shams that were communist governments around the globe. One thing that was understood back then was that you didn’t necessarily have any power at all as “president” or “prime minister” or whatever you might call the top job in the government. It’s the Communist Party that really has the power, and whoever runs the Communist Party controls the country.
So all that news you heard yesterday about how Raul Castro was “stepping down” as president of Cuba? A joke. The announcement today that 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel has taken over as the new president? Meaningless. Raul Castro continues to control everything:
Diaz-Canel, 57, was selected as the unopposed candidate to replace Raul Castro, 86. Castro embraced Diaz-Canel — who wasn’t yet born when Fidel Castro led his revolution in 1959 — during Wednesday’s session, all but sealing his status as the island’s next president. Raul Castro is still expected to exercise a large measure of control over the Cuban government and have the final say on important decisions. He will remain first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, a member of the National Assembly and, even if he is no longer president, the most powerful public figure on the island. In remarks following the National Assembly’s announcement, Diaz-Canel acknowledged that Raul Castro would remain as the head of the armed forces, which runs much of the Cuban economy and tourism industry.

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In spite of this rather significant detail – the fact that Castro hasn’t given up even the tiniest bit of control – you’re still hearing dopey media narratives about the “end of an era” and so forth, because for the first time since 1957, Cuba is being “led by someone not named Castro.” Except that it isn’t. Diaz-Canel’s position is almost entirely ceremonial, and even he seems to realize it. Now sure, Raul Castro is 86 years old, and when he dies there will certainly be a fight for the real power. Perhaps Diaz-Canel’s position as president will put him in a strong position to win the power struggle that will ensue at that time. But to pretend this is really significant is to completely turn a blind eye to the realities of communism, and of the joke that is the communist governing structure – especially having people turn out to “vote” when only one party is even allowed to run. Yet the fatuous nature of the coverage is nothing new. The U.S. media used to fawn over every new Soviet president as well – particularly Mikhail Gorbachev – as if it was possible for some dynamic new leader to change a bureaucratic behemoth like the Communist Party. Soviet communism never gave an inch until the entire system collapsed, and it never would have just because one leader wanted it to (not that I concede that Gorbachev really did). And the same is true here. The American media need to remove their heads from a certain place of no sun and stop pretending that, in a communist country, anyone other than the Communist Party has any control. Raul Castro still controls Cuba because he still controls the Communist Party. That will be true until Castro dies, or until there is a revolution that finally frees that long-suffering nation from the ingrates who have ruled it all these dark, ugly years.

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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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