Peaceful succession under way in Cuba: official

Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | August 7, 2006

[xjcsa]

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has set in motion a peaceful political succession, dashing U.S. government expectations of chaos following Fidel Castro's hand-over of power to his brother, a leading Cuban intellectual and government member, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, said on Monday.

"They (the U.S. government) had not expected that a peaceful succession was possible. A peaceful succession has taken place in Cuba," Fernandez Retamar said at a news conference.

The writer and member of the Council of State was the first government official to say a succession under Raul Castro was in motion after Fidel Castro relinquished power a week ago following gastric surgery.

[xjcsa]

A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean?

[Chi-townChief]

DAMN - beat me by 6 seconds!!!

[HitmanLV]

I think that this is a case of the right hand not knowing that the left hand even exists. :-)

[dfwgator]

A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean?

"He's dead, Jim."

[Williams]

How sweet. 47 years of dictatorial rule to be followed by another dictator. What an accomplishment.

[Bringbackthedraft]

A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean? Ans. One side has control of all the guns.

[The Great RJ]

Peaceful sucession = Fidel is dead and Raul is consolidadting power by liquidating or imprisoning any "enemies of the state". Pretty much a replay of when Stalin died.

[jazusamo]

Exactly!

[Paradox]

dashing U.S. government expectations of chaos following Fidel Castro's

Nope no bias there..

[b4its2late]

A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean?

I'd say it's the yeshisassisfat syndrome.

He's dead.... No wait, He's alive! He's dead.... No wait, He's alive! He's dead.... No wait, He's alive! He's dead.... No wait, He's alive! ......

[rhombus]

A peaceful succession. How nice. I bet soon there will be another one, and another one, and another one. They might find these successions getting less "peaceful". ;-)

[silentknight]

It is up to the people to take control of their country. If they don't want to then I guess everything will remain status quo.

[Dog Gone]

I don't know how to read this. It's sufficiently ambiguous to mean anything anyone wants it to mean.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Cuba has set in motion a peaceful political succession, dashing U.S. government expectations of chaos following Fidel Castro's hand-over of power to his brother . . . "

Just wondering: has anyone in Washington actually predicted chaos following Castro's hand-over of power? And the word "dashing" - usually accompanied by the word "hopes," not "expectations" - is also interesting. It's as if Reuters is spinning this as somehow a defeat for the U.S.

[Trueblackman]

If Castro dies on Bush's Watch the Democrats will demand an investigation into Karl Rove and what he knew along with Cheney.

[RasterMaster]

Was Fidel invited to go "hunting"?

[ohioWfan]

Cuba has set in motion a peaceful political succession, dashing U.S. government expectations of chaos following Fidel Castro's hand-over of power to his brother, a leading Cuban intellectual and government member, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, said on Monday.

"Dashing" U.S. "expectations"? "Leading Cuban intellectual and government member"??

Does this first paragraph strike anyone else as amusing? (Besides being completely meaningless, that is.....)

[zarf]

How sweet. 47 years of dictatorial rule to be followed by another dictator. What an accomplishment.

Those who expected different are fools.

[Centurion2000]

A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean?

It means FIDEL has LEFT the building :) ...

Considering how ogrish Raul is, expect a civil war or collapse in 6 months or less.

[Invisible Gorilla]

A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean?

One murderer is filling in for another.

[nina0113]

47 years of dictatorial rule to be followed by another dictator.

But Raul's nowhere in sight either. I think he's collared the cash & headed for Switzerland.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Careful--it's Reuters.

[is_is]

Cuba has set in motion a peaceful political succession, dashing U.S. government expectations

unbiased reporting would have included........although there is no way to substatiate the claim....

F*&# reuters

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Its means Jimmah Cahtah leads the funeral delegation.

[livius]

To my knowledge, nobody has even seen Raul (who was not popular) since Fidel handed over the reins. So who knows who's been liquidated? Or who's in charge? In any case, I think it's safe to say that there was definitely a power struggle, and not everybody who went into it is going to come out of it.

[Invisible Gorilla]

t is up to the people to take control of their country. If they don't want to then I guess everything will remain status quo.

Probably, at least as long as the remaining revolutionary alumni are alive.

[dead]

The hopeful expectation is that Raul will not have the tenacious staying power that his brother Fidel enjoyed. The transition period may reveal opportunities for revolution that will free the nation from tyranny.

Even without beneficial side benefits, Fidel's death will merit celebration all by itself.

[Xenalyte]

I'm trying to figure out whether it "has taken place" per Mr. Retamar (which means it's done) or it's "under way" per the headline (which means it's still happening).

[nina0113]

Hey! I haven't seen any of your posts since forever! What's your take on Mexico?

[contemplator]

For the past week or so Cuba has been saying that they didn't understand why Washington was issuing statements and what the media storm in the U.S. was all about. They continued to assert that nothing of import was going on. We know where Bagdad Bob is living now.

[hosepipe]

The dogs are growling and taking sides..
Raul would be better off in Venezuela..

Alpha dog died... the dogs are skittish...
The bitches must be hiding..

[Invisible Gorilla]

Has Carter ever hugged Castro, or was there a communist tyrant he missed?

[shield]

Geeezzz....talk about confusing...I just heard on local news that Fidel would be back as leader of Cuba within a week...his recovery is better than expected. So which is it...is he dead or dying? OR is his recovery taking place?

[D-fendr]

Ah, the classless society has looked far and wide to find just the right one to lead the masses and has chosen – the dictator's brother.

[Rte66]

Well, darn, I was just sooo hoping for chaos in Cuba. Drat. /sarc

[Invisible Gorilla]

LOL! Nice graphic. I see from that Reuters pic that Carter and Castro have spent some quality closet time together.

[dead]

It's a cleverly constructed bit of propaganda by Reuters.

The "dashing U.S. government expectations of chaos" bit is attributed to "a leading Cuban intellectual and government member" that you never heard of, so they can state their opinion but blame it on somebody else.

And it's not in quotation marks, so if the attributed clown takes issue with the words they put in his mouth, they can just claim they were paraphrasing his thoughts, and didn't quote him directly.

The article is really a piece of crap, from a journalistic standpoint, but it does what the propagandists at Reuters want it do.

[ChiMark]

Yes, unrepentent Reuters again steps in it.

[RobFromGa]

[Rte66]

That's what I *heard,* too. That the Fiddlehead spider would be back "on the job" within the week.

[jdm]

"A peacefull succession "has taken place"?!? What does that mean?"

Dan Ra^ther is reporting that Jimmy Carter has agreed to become the next President of Cuba.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Castro has no class. El Cid had class.

If you have to come back from the dead, come back in full armor on your stallion routing the minions of Mohamed before you. El Cid did something for western civilization. Cubans will line up to pee on Castro's grave.

[gondramB]

>>Fidel Castro's hand-over of power to his brother, a leading Cuban intellectual and government member, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, said on Monday.<<

Great... so we get the head of the secret police instead... Well at least he's only 5 years younger than Fidel...he's old too.

[VeniVidiVici]

How sweet. 47 years of dictatorial rule to be followed by another dictator. What an accomplishment.

And surely to be applauded by the Democrats and the Hollywood left. Oh wait! They are one and the same!

[XR7]

[Blogger]

Succession? I thought he was temporarily taking over power while Fidel recoups.

[RockinRight]

Fidel didn't "hand over" anything.

IMHO, Fidel's been room temperature for about a week and a half now.

[r9etb]

A peaceful succession to Raoul Castro ... which is to say, not really a "succession" at all. Raoul is no spring chicken himself, but the Castro family still retains its grip on Cuba. The chaos will come ... and it will come ... when Raoul can no longer maintain his grip.

[RockinRight]