Word: castros
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...Havana Cuban Shuffle In what analysts called the nation's biggest shake-up in decades, President Raúl Castro dismissed several top officials with ties to his ailing brother. The move, which some say indicates Castro is placing his imprimatur on the Cuban government, comes after his first year in office. Among those affected were Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage, both of whom had been considered potential presidential candidates. Fidel Castro backed the moves, blasting some of his former cohort for being corrupted by 'the honey of power...
...Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Chávez won his referendum handily, but the day was still a victory of sorts for Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen, who got to cultivate potential constituents with a common concern - namely, the tight alliance between Chávez and their own nemesis, the Castro regime in Cuba. (See pictures of Fidel Castro stepping down...
...acting more like a dictator every day," says Diaz-Balart, who accuses the Venezuelan President of human-rights abuses against opponents and of pressuring independent media that criticize his government. Ros-Lehtinen agrees, noting the similarities between the Cubans who fled the island in the wake of Fidel Castro's communist revolution 50 years ago and the Venezuelans now residing in her South Florida district. "We are very much aware of the key issues facing them," she says. Adds Ninoska Perez, director of the conservative Cuban Liberty Council in Miami, "In many ways, we Cubans see what is happening...
That trend, if those petitions are successful, could ultimately create a cache of future voters for pols like Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen - a source that may only grow stronger as the ties between the Castros and Chávez grow warmer. Indeed, soon after he was first elected, the Venezuelan President asked then Cuban leader Fidel Castro for advice on how to transform his country into a socialist state for the 21st century. Chávez also began to refer to Castro as his "father." (Fidel, 82 and ailing, has since ceded power to his younger brother...
Whatever differences might exist between former Cuban President Fidel Castro and his younger brother, President Raúl Castro, the most important is style. Fidel values a fiery belly full of political ideology; Raúl prizes a cooler head equipped with administrative acumen. The latter has been at the forefront ever since the ailing Fidel, 82, ceded power to Raúl, 77, last year. But this week Raúl's m.o. emerged in ways that could eventually facilitate the tentative but growing efforts in Washington and Havana to end 50 years of hemispheric cold war and thaw...