Word: fideles
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Fidel, it seems, thinks about little else than the revolution. When he gets together with old friends, they reminisce on the glorious past of the revolution. Every day he personally takes charge of large matters, like the relationship with the church, and small, like details of a financial transaction with a foreign investor. No matter what subject comes up for private discussion, Fidel soon turns it to preservation of the revolution. Aware than many in the country no longer believe in the orthodoxies of Marxism, he has cleverly redefined the revolution into a code for Cuban sovereignty, national identity...
...Castro is an introspective man, he keeps his reflections on all this private. Even those who know him well shake their head and say, "Ask Fidel," when questioned about his mood these days. Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly of People's Power and an intimate of the Comandante's, insists that he is "very happy," but that seemed to refer mainly to his "victory" in the Jan. 11 National Assembly elections, where only one candidate designated by the party could run for each seat...
...friend who has known Castro since their university days, film-institute president Alfredo Guevara, describes Fidel as obsessed. His friend was always a volcano "that sometimes does harm but sometimes fertilizes the soil." For 40 years he has obsessed--Guevara keeps using the word--over the "consummation of the revolution that we know has not been fully achieved." Yet Fidel is intensely proud that he has again defied world predictions of his imminent demise, as satisfying a triumph to him as any that went before...
...biological transition" that will bring a new leader to that book-lined office. His brother Raul remains the designated successor. But starting perhaps half a decade ago, he began systematically replacing old revolutionary comrades in the government with young, educated technocrats. Today many party leaders, National Assembly members and Fidel's own top advisers are under 40, a form of insurance that dedicated followers of his ideals are prepared to carry on his revolutionary mission...
...Fidel Castro has always been a redoubtable tactician, adept at sensing the public temper and clever at catching up with the times. He is also ready to "correct the errors we made in correcting our errors," as he once put it, when it suits his purposes. National unity is a precious component of his authority, and so he will tack when necessary to preserve it. "Fidel wants to authorize what people are already doing spontaneously," says Raul Rivero, a poet and independent journalist. It's like the dollar. When the black market in American currency grew too strong, Castro...