Word: fidelista
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...that he's in power, Raul is pushing further economic liberalization and improved ties with the U.S. (Washington has maintained a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962). But, because he lacks the charisma that helped keep his brother in power so long, Raul also has to keep the legendary Fidelista flame at least half lit. Even as he pledged at his inauguration to make Cuba "more efficient" and to "start removing" its "excess of prohibitions," he declared Fidel "irreplaceable" and insisted he would "continue consulting" his bearded brother on policy decisions...
...doctor who served as a medic to the Castro brothers' rebel army and has been at their side since Fidel took power in 1959, may be a geriatric hard-liner, but he is also one of Raul's closest confidantes and may help his reforms navigate the minefield of Fidelista resistance during the early stages of Raul's rule. Those changes are expected to include broadening private enterprise, especially in the agriculture and service sectors - institutionalizing profit-oriented farmers' markets, for example, and letting families run more varied small businesses...
That's one argument for easing the embargo. Here's another: failing to do so might risk buoying the very Fidelista hard-liners whose power Raúl has worked to undermine in the past year and a half. Not so long ago, it seemed the next generation of Cuban leaders would be an ideological cohort fiercely loyal to Fidel, known as los Taliban and led by Foreign Minister Felipe Peréz Roque, 42. But since Raúl took over as interim President, the likes of Peréz have seen their power checked while pragmatists like Vice President Carlos Lage, 56, who share...
Raúl's faction is credited with leaking a recent video in which a notable Fidelista, National Assembly leader Ricardo Alarcón, is hectored during a visit to the University of Havana. In the video, an angry student peppers a visibly flummoxed Alarcón with the kind of questions that usually get Cubans tossed into jail: Why does a worker have to toil two or three days just to be able to buy a toothbrush? Why can't Cubans freely travel abroad...
Current Vice President Carlos Lage, 56, who shares Raul's less ideological economic policy vision, stands to tower over diminished fidelistas like Alarcon and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Perez, 42, once considered a leader of the youthful fidelista hardliners known as los Taliban, has seen his stature particularly reduced under Raul - to the point that he was compelled late last year to endorse Cuba's acceptance of an international human rights accord, something Fidel had criticized as a violation of the island's sovereignty but which Raul had decided was necessary to begin thawing relations with...