# Castro in surgery, turns over government to brother Raul **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 1, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826 "2006-08-01T02:00:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/21 "2006-08-01T16:01:16Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > I believe Cuba also has world record on the number of hookers per inhabitants. Apparently a large number of the “progressive” Europeans taking a short vacation to Cuba to have a taste of the delicious samba-socialism, take the opportunity to buy a local girl cheaply for their hard western currency. It used to be so in the old East European block as well. Your money could really get you places on a vacation to Yugoslavia (I was there) or a trip to Moscow. Not much to buy. But you can always buy a girl or two with the blessing of Fidel Castro and his communism that has prostituted his whole population. Damn. You Europeans get ALL the fun. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/22 "2006-08-01T16:32:02Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Are the Miami exiles expecting a revolution that’s not going to happen…? Ermmm . . . Yes, they are. Since 1959. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/23 "2006-08-01T16:56:05Z")
> [@if6was9](#): > > Well, to your point of Miamians jumping the gun, I’ll bet the _underground_ is buzzing in Havana. They might not be celebrating in the streets, and I’m kind of assuming they don’t have much internet access or a blogosphere, but you know word is spreading\*, people are whispering, hopes are high. 🙂 Hope mixed with grief, I should think. It’s hard to gauge public opinion in Cuba from the outside, but from all I’ve read, a lot of Cubans, perhaps a majority, sincerely admire Castro even if they don’t give a rat’s ass about socialism. They admire him because he’s the only leader they’ve ever known, kind of a father figure; but more than that, they admire him because he’s the only Cuban leader since the Spanish-American War to stand up to the U.S. and make it stick. America went to war with Spain with the stated goal of winning independence for Cuba, but it turned out “independence” meant keeping Cuba under America’s thumb as a puppet state from 1898 to 1959. The Cubans still remember that, and resent it, and respect Castro for putting an end to it – and for making Cuba something of a minor military power and player in international politics for the first time in its history. OTOH, I bet they’re really looking forward to that embargo coming down, and getting the chance to visit with relatives in Miami without burning any bridges behind them, and putting an end to these 47 years of mutually paranoid hostility with their biggest and richest neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/24 "2006-08-01T16:59:27Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Damn. You Europeans get ALL the fun. 😛 > > -XT So we Yanks have something besides Cuban cigars to look forward to! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/25 "2006-08-01T17:38:21Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > … Only really close countries would get the Queen herself. > > Nobody else but the US treats Cuba as a pariah. Hell if Pope John Paul II didn’t get the Queen what chance does Fidel Castro have? 😉 Castro has ruled longer than anyone save Elizabeth II and Rama IX. Raul has 2 maybe 3 years tops of power. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/26 "2006-08-01T19:04:57Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Hell if Pope John Paul II didn’t get the Queen what chance does Fidel Castro have? 😉 Castro has ruled longer than anyone save Elizabeth II and Rama IX. Raul has 2 maybe 3 years tops of power. The UK has the same sort of problem with sending the Queen (the Supreme Governor of the Church of England) to a Pope’s funeral as the US would have with sending Shrub to Castro’s- only this is a five hundred year disagreement, not a mere fifty! OTOH, if Shrub snuffed it, I am sure that he would get both Blair and Queenie at his funeral. 🙂 Dream on. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/27 "2006-08-01T19:58:42Z")
What’s wrong with C anyway? ["So many possibilities . . .](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01899541.htm) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/28 "2006-08-01T20:16:02Z")
> [@if6was9](#): > > hopes are high. 🙂 Not obvious at all. There has been way worst dictators than Castro who have been sincerely and deeply mourned by the population. See Stalin, in particular. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/29 "2006-08-01T20:19:50Z")
Commie Bastards: [Cuba imposes normalcy with Castro ailing](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060801/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_castro_42) Leader gets a little sick, and they put a stop to all the strange stuff! What is up with headlines this week? Is it the heat? [Bush Looks to UN for Mideast Solution](http://news.google.com/news?q=%22bush%20looks%20to%20un%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wn) ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/30 "2006-08-01T20:29:48Z")
Yep, [normal](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060801/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_castro_42) > [@](#): > > Officials halted some interviews by journalists Tuesday, with one plainclothes officer ejecting an Associated Press reporter from a cafe for asking questions. People on the street were reluctant to talk to foreign journalists, and many declined to give full names ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/31 "2006-08-02T00:04:54Z")
[Fidel’s out of surgery.](http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=238d5f38-e312-410c-aa2d-dd6f7a3253c7&k=58258) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/32 "2006-08-02T14:08:32Z")
I was hoping Fidel would spill his guts about how he conspired to kill Kennedy! This would tie the whole thing together-but nuts! Maybe castro will have a relapse! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/33 "2006-08-02T14:18:37Z")
Hard to tell what’s really wrong with Fidel but if he took the unprecedented step of yielding power to his brother then one must assume either he’s not sure of making it or he’s testing the water for when he dies years from now. If he dies, this would be a lovely time for the US to normalize relations with Cuba under the guise that the embargo was aimed at Fidel, not the Cuban people. Especially now that they have oil. My guess is Fidelliburton is just around the corner. ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/34 "2006-08-02T14:53:43Z")
Let’s get one thing straight. The United States does not have and has never had the slightest objection to undemocratic dictatorships if they are in line with US ideology and foreign policy interests. Vicious, repressive and thoroughly undemocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia or the government-sponsored murder squads in San Salvador, or Augusto Pinochet’s Chili in the 70s and 80s are 100% acceptable to the US, and the CIA is perfectly willing to help them train torturers and “special operatives” (i.e. terrorists) to keep down “insurgents”. Castro’s “crime” is that he took what was virtually a US colony, Cuba, and made it stand up for itself. This is what the United States cannot tolerate: states in the Americas with a backbone and a mind of their own. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/35 "2006-08-02T23:36:46Z")
[No bid contracts for the revolution:](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_cuba_25) > [@](#): > > For now, Bush administration officials and members of Congress were focused on offering dissidents cash for fighting for democratic change. > > Legislation sponsored by Nelson, fellow Floridian Mel Martinez, Majority Leader Bill Frist and others would authorize as much as $80 million over two years — and **pay half of that almost immediately** — to dissidents and nongovernmental organizations on the island. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/36 "2006-08-03T14:11:34Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > Castro’s “crime” is that he took what was virtually a US colony, Cuba, and made it stand up for itself. This is what the United States cannot tolerate: states in the Americas with a backbone and a mind of their own. You left out the voting block of Cubans who want Castro out. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/37 "2006-08-03T17:27:59Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You left out the voting block of Cubans who want Castro out. But how can we know how many they are? Or with what, exactly, they would like to replace him? Saying “democracy” doesn’t answer the question, it only begs the next one: If the Cubans had a democratic choice of economic systems, would they choose a “free market,” some form of democratic socialism, or what? I **don’t** think they would want to end up like post-Soviet Russia! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/38 "2006-08-04T13:41:42Z")
[Now it appears Castro is preparing a more collegial leadership to follow his death.](http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15196783.htm) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/39 "2006-08-04T21:16:14Z")
Raul’s getting [groomed](http://www.gordonbiersch.com/brewery/beer/index.html), so the outlook for Fidel must be bad. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826/40 "2006-08-04T21:53:19Z")
They’re grooming him with _beer_? I thought that was just a 70s fad… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castro-in-surgery-turns-over-government-to-brother-raul/366826.md?page=3)