When Fidel Castro handed power over to his brother Raul, many talked about Raul’s less ideological and more pragmantic nature, and how things would change in Cuba.
It’s not clear from the article exactly what happened, but from Spanish language news it looks like a group of people were marching to the Ministry of Justice to present a petition for the release of some political prisoners. They were met by a mob of 100 government Rapid Response Brigade (thugs), and the protestors were arrested and taken away in government vehicles, 21 of them have not been heard from yet. At the same time a roundup of “usual suspects” also took place, and those were interrogated and released.
So, he wants to hear “how to improve things” without hearing about “things that we believe should be improved,” since that implies “things that are bad.” He probably also wants to improve things without changing them.
I think if I ever had power handed to me, I would be a dictator of some sort. Not that I ever want power (probably because of the likelihood of such a weakness). However, if I were in power, and I offered to meet to discuss how to change things, and a bunch of potentially violent protesters came at me with signs and shouting, I would probably arrest them too. You can call for changes, and still demand quite forcibly that they come peacefully or else. Perhaps this is the case, he is arresting those that get out of hand, rather than those that have negative things to say, but in a calm and logical way.
Just as if I had a business and some of my practices weren’t generally acceptable or I was a complete jerk, and offered a round table meeting to discuss possible change. If people came in with signs or started screaming at me in my face, I would have them removed from the meeting, possibly the building and likely they would lose their job. I would expect that had I power over people in a government sense, I would have similar expectations of people.
Change could very easily lead to total collapse–which could easily result in Raul finding himself like the Romanovs. So even if he was willing to bend on political issues, frankly he might not feel safe to.
I worry that Hugo Chavez has his beady little sights set on Cuba. I fear he’s just crazy enough to step in to ensure The Revolution continues post-Fidel. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he’s getting people in place already…
The thinking in Cuba, and it is not shared by Cubans outside the island, is that Raul will hand power over to Fidel’s oldest son, Fidelito, who not only has the family connection to Fidel but through his mother, Mirta Diaz-Balart, has many connections to power in the US government, (brothers Licoln and Mario Diaz-Balart are US Representatives).
I don’t think there is ‘justification’ for drinking, yet I do it. People don’t operate on pristine moral standards like some perfectly ethical robot. Fidel was a monster, his brother is talking about change. Just because he is rounding up some dissenters (and I don’t know which ones he is rounding up and which ones he is letting speak), doesn’t mean he is the same as the old boss. He may not be a great philanthropist or the epitome of the democratic way, but if he is better than Fidel and he actually listens?
At least he isn’t shooting them in the street like in Myanmar.