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In their litany of American presidents who met with hostile dictators, supporters of Barack Obama cite John F. Kennedy and his meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961. They leave out how it went. The earnest, young American president wanted to forestall any possibility of misunderstanding and to win Khrushchev’s commitment to the international status quo. The blustery, risk-taking Soviet premier wanted to bludgeon Kennedy into making concessions that would further the Soviet goal of global revolution. With such clashing objectives, the two leaders didn’t exactly hit it off. When Kennedy thought he was being accommodating, Khrushchev...

HAVANA (AP) - President Raul Castro has lifted restrictions on consumer goods and hotel stays, but most Cubans get paid in virtually worthless pesos, which can't buy basic items like toilet paper, let alone a DVD player or poolside mojito cocktails at the Hotel Capri. Nearly everything Cubans want or need must be bought with a separate currency created for tourists and foreigners. So, until the regular peso increases in value, Castro's moves will be bittersweet gestures. The new leader's solution, now the talk of the island: merge the two currencies. But this turns out to be much easier said...

HAVANA - Raul Castro's government opened luxury hotels and resorts to all Cubans Monday, ending a ban despised across the island as "tourist apartheid" and taking another step toward the creation of a consumer economy in the socialist state. ADVERTISEMENT Cuba has made a series of crowd-pleasing announcements in the past few days. Cubans with enough cash will be able to buy computers, DVD players and plasma televisions starting Tuesday, and soon they'll even be able to have their own cell phones — consumer goods only companies and foreigners were previously permitted to buy. But the latest surprise, allowing ordinary...

The Hemisphere: Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.As befits a new dictator seeking to win some popularity, Castro is lifting ownership restrictions for ordinary Cubans on mobile phones, computers, DVD players, even toasters. But unlike the toasters that U.S. banks used to give away, these don't come free. Each of Raul's offerings to buy goods comes with a state-set price most Cubans have no realistic prospect of affording. Average Cuban salaries, minus...

Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.

HAVANA - President Raul Castro's government is allowing ordinary Cubans to have cell phones. The luxury was previously reserved for those who worked for foreign firms or held key posts with the communist-run state. Friday's decree officially lifts a major restriction on daily life in Cuba.

Cuban President Raul Castro's recently revealed economic "reforms" brought to mind two quite unrelated characters: Lewis Carroll's White Queen, and an old Cuban exile acquaintance of mine named Ignacio. President Raul, the sprightly 76-year-old who was "elected" to the presidency of Cuba on February 24, thus replacing his ailing octogenarian brother, Fidel, is reportedly planning to grant his enslaved nation access to more consumer goods. Citing "the improved availability of electricity," the new Maximum Leader will offer for sale computers, DVD players, pressure cookers and microwave ovens. However, air conditioners are not to be made available until next year, and...

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro is taking over leadership of a country whose government believes its citizens are not working hard enough. The state-run newspaper recently ran an article headlined "Work: Option or necessity?" The writer pointed out that, judging by the number of people in the streets during the day, many Cubans don't seem to be on the job. They have few motivations to buckle down: Salaries average about $15 per month on the island, and Cubans get monthly food rations even if they don't work. Watch a report on the realities in Cuba » "There...

HAVANA — Nearly 50 years of rule by Fidel Castro ended in Cuba on Sunday as parliament chose his brother Raul to replace him — a transition that leaves the island's communist system unshaken. The new president proposed consulting with the ailing 81-year-old Fidel on all major decisions of state, and parliament approved the proposal. The vote came five days after Fidel said he was retiring, capping a career in which he frustrated efforts by 10 U.S. presidents to oust him. The transition was not likely to bring a major shift in policies of the communist government that have put...

The announcement this week of Fidel Castro's retirement was a mere formality. You'll recall the identical announcement July of 2006. In fact, many Cuba watchers will tell you that his little brother, Raul, as head of Cuba's Armed Forces, has been mostly running Cuba--the nuts and bolts of the thing--for decades, and more singlehandedly for the past five years.

As North America awoke this morning, it was confronted with the news that Fidel Castro has decided that he will “neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.” In essence, the elder Castro is stepping aside officially in favor of the 76-year-old dauphin, his brother Raul. What does this mean for the people of Cuba? In the short run, nothing. The elder Castro has been out of commission since his health failed him in July 2006. The nature of the illness is a state secret, but it’s apparent to any observer...

The US coast guard is staging a huge exercise in Florida in preparation for a possible mass exodus from Cuba in the event of the death of Fidel Castro.More than 300 agents and 85 law enforcement agencies are taking part in the two-day Operation Vigilant Sentry. Actors are playing imaginary Cuban migrants in mock interceptions. The operation has taken on a renewed urgency since President Castro fell ill and handed temporary power to his brother Raul last July. President Castro recently spoke in a live broadcast with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, but has not been seen in public...

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, looking notably better than he did when last seen almost three weeks ago, happily greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a brief visit aired on state television Friday. "Brother!" the 80-year-old Castro said from his sickbed, his face lighting up as Chavez entered the room Friday where he was recuperating and gave him a warm embrace. "Gentleman of the heroic resistance!" the Venezuelan president responded with a smile to his good friend and ally. "What joy!" Castro said after sitting up on his bed. "A million thanks!" Chavez has now visited Castro three times since the...

Washington -- Since Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's July intestinal surgery forced him to transfer power to his brother Raul, the institutions of Cuba's totalitarian apparatus are probably "in a process ... of negotiation as they attempt to determine what the power-sharing arrangements will be" in the post-Castro era, Thomas Shannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said August 23.Briefing reporters in Washington, Shannon said that although the Castro regime is deliberately "opaque" about the dictator's condition, most analysts agree that the 80-year-old Fidel Castro does not appear to be capable of day-to-day management of Cuban affairs. “We...

Fidel Castro was taking great pains to prepare his 80th birthday celebration. It was set for Aug. 13. Some official note told of ''thousands of international invitees.'' It was to be his apotheosis. In the classic world, the word apotheosis was given to the ceremony that conferred the condition of gods upon a nation's heroes. But Castro couldn't turn into a god. His diverticula -- small ulcers that lacerate the intestine and sometimes cause profuse bleeding -- got in the way. The hemorrhage was so intense that they had to operate on him urgently. Given his age, the surgery was...

A WIRY figure with dark, defiant eyes, Oswaldo Paya is not easily intimidated. His house is under constant surveillance and he has received numerous death threats. Most of his followers are in jail. Cuba’s leading dissident will not be deterred, however, from a campaign to promote democracy in one of the world’s last communist outposts. “It is time for change,” he said last week as the country struggled to adjust to its first new leadership in almost half a century. “The oppression and lies must end.” Behind its sunny, palm-fringed facade as a trendy tourist destination, Cuba was racked by...

Please register or log in Subscribers: Get the Advantage Search: chicagotribune chicagotribune Google chicagotribune.com >> Nation/World Raul Castro goes public, says he has mobilized Cuba to repel U.S. By Gary Marx Tribune foreign correspondent Published August 19, 2006 HAVANA -- In his first public declaration as acting president, Raul Castro said he has mobilized tens of thousands reservists and militia to defend Cuba against a potential U.S. threat. "We could not rule out the risk of somebody going crazy, or even crazier, within the U.S. government," he said in an interview Friday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. Under the...

With Fidel Castro at age 80, ill and close to death, the essential factor is not when he will disappear but what will happen afterward. Will the dictatorship remain in place without the Comandante? Probably not; all the conditions are there for a change to begin. Here I list eight very important ones.With his ponderous weight, Fidel Castro has crushed all the institutions in the country. The Communist Party is a hollow shell, inhabited by automatons who decades ago lost their devotion and revolutionary mystique. The National Assembly of the People's Power (Parliament), known as “The Havana Boys Choir,” is...

HAVANA - Acting President Raul Castro said Cuba remains open to normalized relations with the United States, but warned the Bush administration in his first comments since assuming power that it will get nowhere with threats or pressure. Raul Castro also said in Friday editions of the island's Communist Party newspaper that he had mobilized tens of thousands of troops in response to what he called aggressive U.S. acts, including stepped-up radio and television broadcasts to the island, and an $80 million plan to hasten the end of the Castros' rule. "Some of the empire's war hawks thought that the...

What will become of Cuba once Fidel Castro dies ? I suspect Cuba will be absorbed into the new,steadily growing "Bolivarian Republic" of Hugo Chavez,and that nobody but Hugo is going to like the idea.

HAVANA - Cubans welcomed new photographs showing Fidel Castro in an 80th birthday visit with his brother Raul and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as evidence that their leader was alive and recovering — although visibly more mortal than ever. Castro has become larger than life in his nearly 50 years in power. He's generally seen shaking his fist in the air, leading huge marches or giving long speeches, and iconic images of a younger, more vital Castro often appear in state-run media. But Monday's photographs showed him bedridden, looking tired and pale as he clasped the hand of close friend...

Nearly two week ago, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell suggested hard-line Communist Raul Castro really did have a soft spot for capitalism. “Raul has been in charge of the military and the economy,” Mitchell explained to the August 2 “Today” show audience, calling Fidel’s younger brother “politically hard-line but more open than his brother to free enterprise, including foreign investment.” She might be on to something, after all. “Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them, current and former Justice Department...

by Mark Finkelstein August 14, 2006 - 13:45 In an article on Fidel Castro, his health, and his visit from Venezuelan Fidel fan Hugo Chavez, the Associated Press noted that "birthday articles in state-run newspapers extolled his virtues." The implication is that state-controlled papers aren't apt to be truthful, much less objective. So what's the AP's excuse? In the very same article, AP reporter Anita Snow informs us that: "News of Castro's illness made Cubans uneasy about the future, but a series of upbeat statements from government officials have helped calm a public facing up to the mortality of the...

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's Communist daily published new photographs of ailing leader Fidel Castro on Monday, showing him in bed on his 80th birthday during a visit with his brother Raul and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The official Granma newspaper posted the six photographs on its online edition, one day after the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde published the first images of Castro since the Cuban leader announced two weeks ago he had undergone intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to Raul, the defense minister and No. 2 in the government. Chavez's visit came the same day Castro sent...

Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them, current and former Justice Department officials tell ABC News. The officials say Castro, as Cuban Defense Minister, permitted Colombian drug lords to pay for the use of Cuban waters and airstrips as staging grounds for smuggling runs into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s. "It was a major investigation involving numerous witnesses that was killed at the highest levels in Washington," said a former Justice Department official...

HAVANA — On his 80th birthday, Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans on Sunday that he faced a long recovery from surgery and advised them to prepare for “adverse news,” as the Communist Youth newspaper published the first photographs of the leader since his illness. Meanwhile, Castro's younger brother, Raul, made his first public appearance as Cuba's interim president, receiving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Havana airport Sunday. Chavez arrived to celebrate the elder Castro's birthday.

http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/ADDITION_CUBA_CASTRO.sff_NY110_20060813062244.jpg This is one of four photographs published Sunday Aug. 13, 2006 by Cuba's Communist Youth newspaper's online edition Juventud Rebelde proporting to show The first photographs of Fidel Castro since his illness two weeks ago. Castro holds a copy of the Saturday Aug. 12, 2006 edition of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. The headline reads "Absolved by history." The Associated Press cannot verify the authenticity or the date when these photographs were shot. (AP Photo/HO) Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

HAVANA - Fidel Castro's younger brother, Raul, made his first public appearance as Cuba's interim president Sunday, receiving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Havana airport. Chavez arrived to celebrate the elder Castro's 80th birthday. Earlier, Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans that he faced a long recovery from surgery and advised them to prepare for "adverse news," but he urged them to stay optimistic. Castro said his health had improved since an unspecified intestinal ailment forced him to step aside as president two weeks ago, but he warned that risks remain. "I feel very happy," said a statement attributed to Castro...

The Drudge Report posed an important question today: "Read or Fake?", referring to the recent photo of Castro holding a copy of a current Cuban newspaper. I decided to find out since the link to the article didn't answer the question. I saved the photo and ran it through my well-trained Photoshop eye. Upon initial review, the photo appears legitimate. However, after zooming in 400% on the photo, the truth is revealed - the photo is a fake.

Hollywood actor, Benicio del Toro, winner of an Oscar for best supporting actor in Traffic, by Steven Soderbergh, has called for respect for Cuban sovereignty. Del Toro, an actor of Puerto Rican nationality, added his voice to the 3,780-plus intellectuals and artists from more than 50 countries who are condemning the aggressive and interventionist tone of the George W. Bush government toward Cuba. The movie star, a man dedicated to bringing art to the masses, through which he came to identify with Cuba, visited Havana a few years ago with director Soderbergh and the producers of Traffic to premiere that...

Opening shot We tend to evaluate only wars that were actually fought, where our hindsight is clouded by the soldiers lost. Thus the Vietnam War, for example, had to be necessary, because of the 50,000 American lives spent fighting it. To say it wasn't worthwhile is to question their sacrifice, or begin to. The gift from Fidel Castro -- it is clear now that the tyrant, at long last, seems to be fading away -- is the war we never fought against him and his Soviet patron in 1962, the conflict that John F. Kennedy straight-armed, in his finest moment,...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro was reported to be walking, talking and undergoing briefings on Saturday, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was headed to Havana to share a birthday cake with the ailing Cuban leader. Castro, who turns 80 on Sunday, has not been seen publicly since he temporarily ceded power to his younger brother on July 31 because of complicated abdominal surgery. Details of his condition are considered a state secret. But the Communist Party daily, Granma, published a cryptic report on Saturday from an unidentified visitor who described Castro as "up and about, like someone anticipating...

Without so much as a greeting to the nation, Cuba's new ruler showed his intentions by calling up Cuban military-age men in a forced mobilization to "defend the republic." He also imposed a press blackout, kicking Western reporters out of Cuba and sending his secret police to crack down on the country's 10,000 illegal satellite dishes. Seeing war everywhere, his directive declared the TV-signal receptors "U.S. weapons." ... Besides turning satellite dishes into weapons, Raul also turned the Cuban military into a for-profit business, amassing considerable wealth that in Cuba swiftly becomes power. Raul's military machine runs gas stations, tourist...

HAVANA (Reuters) - A Cuban minister said on Friday President Fidel Castro was recovering as the country, anxious to see him reappear almost two weeks after undergoing surgery, prepared to celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday with or without him. "We are waiting for new messages but I can say with complete confidence that he is recovering," said Culture Minister Abel Prieto upon opening a photo exhibit of Castro in Havana. "The people are waiting. Fidel asks us to be patient because what's at stake is more than the health of one person," said Prieto, who sits on the powerful...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cuba's Communist government may redouble its efforts to assert control and assure the successful transition from Fidel to Raul Castro, but the plan won't work in the end, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. "While we might be at a moment of great change, we might also be at a moment of actually the regime hardening as it attempts to assert its control," Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon told reporters. "Ultimately, this transfer won't work," Shannon said. "Ultimately, there is no political figure inside of Cuba who matches Fidel Castro. "When a rotor comes off...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The prolonged disappearance of Fidel Castro from public view indicates that the Cuban president is confronting "serious" health problems, a senior U.S. State Department official said Friday. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, briefing reporters, also said he believes that Castro's attempt to turn over power to his brother, Raul, is doomed to fail. "The transfer won't work," Shannon said. "Ultimately, there is no political figure inside of Cuba who matches Fidel Castro."

HAVANA - It was supposed to be the ultimate tribute, several days of parties and concerts to mark Fidel Castro's 80th birthday. But instead of listening to folk music and attending conferences on his legacy, Castro is expected to spend his birthday Sunday in bed, recovering from surgery for intestinal bleeding. Cubans have cultivated a myth over the last half-century that Castro is invincible, but now confront the fact that he is an octogenarian — and frail like other elderly mortals. A few Cubans say it won't be long before Castro is giving five-hour speeches once again, but many believe...

Fidel Castro Meets the Angel of History by James Lileks Scene: A secret Havana military hospital. A frail, old man snaps awake and stares. There's a stranger seated next to the bed, a long, unlit cigar in one hand. The stranger leans back and smiles. "Don't be alarmed," he says. "It's just me, the Angel of History. I like to have a chat with men of your stature at times like this. Good run, old chap; dying in bed. Well played! A little advice? Pretend to die just as you're telling them the secret Swiss bank account numbers. Drives...

fighting wordsThe Eighteenth Brumaire of the Castro DynastyCuba's military coup marks the end of the revolutionary era.By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Aug. 7, 2006, at 11:22 AM ET If there had been a military coup in any other Latin American or Caribbean country, even a fairly small or obscure one, I think it safe to say that it would have made the front page of the newspapers. But the military coup in Cuba—a nation linked to ours in many vital and historic ways—has not been reported at all. Indeed, in "Castro's Younger Brother Is Focus of Attention Now," by Anthony Depalma...

HAVANA (AP) - Leftist intellectuals and human rights activists from around the world pleaded with the United States on Monday not to interfere with Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from intestinal surgery. Many of the 400 signers of the open letter are from Latin America, and numerous Nobel Peace laureates are listed, such as former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and activist Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala. Announcing the letter at a news conference, leading Cuban writer Roberto Fernandez Retamar said Cubans are convinced that Castro's handover of power to his younger brother and defence minister, Raul Castro, is only...

United States President George W. Bush said Monday that it is the Cuban citizens living in the island who will decide the end of the "tyrannical situation". Speaking with journalists at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he is spending a week-and-a-half vacation, Bush said that "our desire is for the Cuban people to be able to choose their own form of government". "Once the people of Cuba decide the form of government, then Cuban-Americans can take an interest in that country and address the issues of property confiscation: but first things first. The Cuban people need to decide the...

(8/07/06 - HAVANA, CUBA) - Cuba's vice president and Venezuela's leader gave optimistic assessments of Fidel Castro's health, saying the Cuban president was recovering quickly from intestinal surgery and could be expected back at work within a few weeks. Castro has been out of sight since July 31, when his secretary announced he had undergone surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his younger brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro. "In a few weeks he'll be recovered and he'll return to his duties," Vice President Carlos Lage said Sunday when asked by reporters when Castro would be back at work. Lage...

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...

President George W. Bush said Cubans "on the island" ought to decide what kind of government and future they want before US-based exiles take up grievances like property confiscated under the communist Fidel Castro regime. "Our desire is for the Cuban people to be able to choose their own form of government," he said. The US leader declared that while "Cuba has the possibility of transforming itself from a tyrannical situation to a different type of society ... the people on the island of Cuba ought to decide" how that change occurs. "Once the people of Cuba decide the form...

ELIAN Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who became the celebrated object of a 2000 US-Cuba tug-of-war wished Cuban leader Fidel Castro a speedy recovery from surgery. "We send you this letter so that you know that we are concerned about your health," Elian Gonzalez, now 13, said in a letter also signed by five other children in his family and published today in the official newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. A week ago, Mr Castro, 79, handed power "temporarily" to his younger brother, Defence Minister Raul Castro, while undergoing surgery for intestinal bleeding. In November 1999, Elian, who was six at the time,...

Doctors operating on the Cuban dictator were startled to discover a large mass of petrified excrement was the cause of his intestinal problems. “Apparently, Fidel hasn’t excreted normally in quite some time,” said Hermano Carnicero, the attending surgeon. “We can’t understand how he could have survived with such a condition.” Professor Manuel Transmisión at the University of Mexico City has a theory that may explain how Castro could have survived such a condition for so long. “Castro used to discharge excrement by means of lengthy speeches,” said Transmisión. “Much of what he said could be termed pure crap. Apparently, this...

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez today said Cuban leader Fidel Castro was now able to leave his bed and hold conversations following stomach surgery that required him to temporarily hand over power to his brother. "This morning I learned that he's doing well, that he's already standing up out of bed, he's talking - more than he should, because he talks a lot," said Mr Chavez during a conversation with Bolivian President Evo Morales broadcast on television. "He has sent us regards." Venezuelan government sources yesterday said Mr Chavez does not have a trip to Cuba on his agenda despite media...

WASHINGTON — Cuba’s ailing revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is “recovering satisfactorily,” his health minister says, while the government-controlled press in Havana seeks to assure the nation that it remains in good hands under the control of Castro’s younger brother. “Raul is there,” reported the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, “firmly at the helm of the nation.” In the week since Castro had surgery for intestinal bleeding, little has surfaced from Havana about his condition. Castro, who turns 80 on Aug. 13, has handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul, 75, under the terms of a long-standing transition plan meant to...