# Castro's 81st birthday passes with almost no public celebration **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 16, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858 "2007-08-16T21:39:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858/1 "2007-08-16T21:39:38Z")
[There was a fireworks display in Havana, but that’s all.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6943907.stm) > [@](#): > > Mr Castro has not been seen in public for over a year after having emergency surgery and power has been temporarily transferred to his brother, Raul. > > Many observers believe Mr Castro may never return to front-line politics. > > For Mr Castro’s last birthday there were candle-lit vigils and mass demonstrations of affection for the convalescing leader. > > There have been no pictures of him recuperating for more than two months now. According to Newsmax writer [Humberto Fontova:](http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/8/16/115028.shtml) > [@](#): > > The regime’s succession plans seem to be operating smoothly. This student’s attitude is undoubtedly the one encouraged by the regime, calm, complacent, even jaded. > > Fidel Castro’s successors want no shocks, no expectations of genuine change, nothing to provoke any popular unrest — much less ignite an explosion. > > In an interview last week Fidel Castro’s own niece, Mariela, was dutifully doing her part in breaking the news gently, “the concern that we all had about losing our leader is now closer to us,” she told Spanish news Agency EFE. “Fidel Castro retains great influence in Cuba through his moral authority, but the country is moving on with or without Fidel.” > > At the regime’s Revolution Day celebrations on July 26 (again with Fidel a no-show) Raul Castro was his usual lackluster self, hinting at structural changes to improve Cubans “inadequate” salaries and inefficient food distribution. “Now we might get a little more bread and a little less circus,” most Cubans probably concluded. > > “Most Cubans have serenely accepted that Castro’s fragile health will not take a rebound and that he will never return to an active life,” this again from the Yolanda Martinez article in Mexico’s Reforma, which goes into more intriguing detail. “Sources close to his family assure us his health is extremely fragile at the moment.” All of which seems to suggest that when Fidel finally kicks . . . it won’t be that big a deal at all, at all. Things will go on more or less as before under Raul. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858/2 "2007-08-17T15:04:54Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] [There was a fireworks display in Havana, but that’s all.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6943907.stm) According to Newsmax writer [Humberto Fontova:](http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/8/16/115028.shtml) All of which seems to suggest that when Fidel finally kicks . . . it won’t be that big a deal at all, at all. Things will go on more or less as before under Raul. What do you think? [/QUOTE] I do think there will be some changes but not right away, and things might get more repressive before they open up. Raul has always been second place to Fidel, and even if he has been running things behind the scenes for a year now, he is also seen as less capable. He certainly is not as charismatic as Fidel, and the Cuban government has for a long time been centered around Fidel’s personality. I think that once Fidel is announced to be dead, and Raul is officially put in charge there will be an internal power struggle. Raul most likely opponent is probably Ramiro Valdez who used to be in charge of state security and is now in charge of Information and Communications. Ramiro was appointed to his new post, after being retired, shortly after Fidel became sick last year, probably by Fidel himself or by his loyalists. In the meantime Raul purged 6 different ministers and replaced them with his own people. So there are things happening behind the scenes. By the way Humberto Fontova has a book out called “The real Che Guevara and the useful idiots who idolize him”, that is a nice read. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858/3 "2007-08-17T15:09:58Z")
[QUOTE=lalenin] Ramiro was appointed to his new post, **after being retired . . .** [/QUOTE] This sounds like the gerontocracy of the latter-day Soviet Union! Don’t they have any **young** people in the government?! ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858/4 "2007-08-17T15:45:38Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] This sounds like the gerontocracy of the latter-day Soviet Union! Don’t they have any **young** people in the government?! [/QUOTE] Perez-Roque is the youngest right now, he’s Fidel’s hand picked foreign minister. But you are right about the age of those in government. When I was in the university in Cuba every year at graduation a few top guys would come to give speeches, never Fidel, but pretty high up. We used to call that “desfile de momias” or “mummies on parade”. This was almost 10 years ago, and they have not been getting younger. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858/5 "2007-08-17T16:07:34Z")
[QUOTE=lalenin] Perez-Roque is the youngest right now, he’s Fidel’s hand picked foreign minister. But you are right about the age of those in government. When I was in the university in Cuba every year at graduation a few top guys would come to give speeches, never Fidel, but pretty high up. We used to call that “desfile de momias” or “mummies on parade”. This was almost 10 years ago, and they have not been getting younger. [/QUOTE] When Castro finally croaks, are we going to see a Stalinesque funeral, and a mausoleum in havana (complete with castro’s expertly-pickled corpse)? These have sorta goen out of style-but this religion needs its patron saint-so will tourists get to see Castro 9in army fatiques) lying in a glass casket? Or will the corpse be buried/cremated? So damn few Communist dictatorships left-I’d say castro is well on his way toward deification. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/castros-81st-birthday-passes-with-almost-no-public-celebration/415858/6 "2007-08-17T17:22:09Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] When Castro finally croaks, are we going to see a Stalinesque funeral, and a mausoleum in havana (complete with castro’s expertly-pickled corpse)? These have sorta goen out of style-but this religion needs its patron saint-so will tourists get to see Castro 9in army fatiques) lying in a glass casket? Or will the corpse be buried/cremated? So damn few Communist dictatorships left-I’d say castro is well on his way toward deification. [/QUOTE] The story is that Fidel does not want the Lenin treatment, but neither did Ho Chi Min and he’s pickled too. He will definitely have a huge funeral, with a large line of people going by to see the corpse, but where he will be buried is not too clear. Fidel is originally from Oriente province, and that’s where his family is buried. But high level revolutionaries are buried in the Frank Pais Mausoleo in another part of Oriente province. On the other hand Fidel has lived in Havana since the 1940’s, and that’s the seat of Cuba government, so he might be buried there. My guess is that after his funeral he will be preserved, not buried, and eventually, assuming Raul remains in power long enough he will be on display in the Plaza de la Revolucion.