Succession Watch: Castro's new Prime Minister and remembering Cuba's last PM not named Castro

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
 

Raul Castro celebrates selection of his new prime minister Manuel Marrero Cruz

Manuel Marrero Cruz is the new prime minister of Cuba. Fidel Castro had named Mr Marrero  tourism minister in 2004 and since then overseen tourism to the island. Now Raul Castro has promoted him to prime minister.

Once again many in the news media are claiming that the Castro regime is decentralizing with the re-emergence of the prime minister's post. They are repeating the dictatorship's talking points, and ignoring the facts on the ground recognized by officials. Raul Castro, 86, remains Cuba's ultimate political power as head of the Communist Party. 

The post of prime minister in Cuba had existed from 1940 through 1976, and the position was initially created with the ratification of the 1940 Constitution during Cuba's democratic era. The prime minister's position continued during the Batista dictatorship (1952 - 1959) and during the Castro dictatorship (1959 - 1976).  During the Castro era, the prime minister for the first 39 days was José Miró Cardona. 

Miró Cardona embracing Fidel Castro in 1959

This is the only prime minister under the Castro era who was an independent actor, not named Castro.
Therefore, it is important to take a closer look at his trajectory in Cuban politics.

Miró Cardona was a lawyer and professor at the University of Havana, who led the civic opposition to dictator Fulgencio Batista, and was selected prime minister on January 5, 1959.  Fidel Castro took over the post of Prime Minister on February 16, 1959 and designated Miró Cardona ambassador to Spain in May 1960. However two months later he had resigned his post and fled to the Argentine Embassy. Miró Cardona entered the United States as an exile in 1960 and  within months became the head of Cuban Revolutionary Council which became a principal exile committee working to invade Cuba in 1961. On the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion José Miró Cardona issued a call to action that correctly predicted the cost of failure.

To arms, Cubans! We must conquer or we shall die choked by slavery. In the name of God we assure you all that after the victory we will have peace, human solidarity, general well-being and absolute respect for the dignity of all Cubans without exception.

The Bay of Pigs was a fiasco that consolidated the Castro regime, and Miró Cardona lived out the rest of his life in exile, dying in Puerto Rico in 1974.

Fidel Castro would hold the post of Prime Minister from February 16, 1959 until the 1976 Constitution abolished the position and Fidel Castro took the role of president from Osvaldo Dorticos. The position has now been restored in a new Constitution that was drafted in 2018 with Raul Castro presiding over the process and ratified in 2019.
 
For the record: Raul Castro handed over the office of the presidency to his hand picked successor Miguel Díaz-Canel on April 19, 2018. The Castro regime used this to give the impression that there is a transition underway in Cuba. This is not the case. General Raul Castro remains head of the communist party and controls the military. General Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas, Raul's son-in-law, runs the Cuban economy. Raul Castro's son, Colonel Alexandro Castro, who negotiated the normalization of relations with the Obama Administration is an intelligence officer with close ties to the secret police. 

Diaz-Canel, like Osvaldo Dorticos who was president of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, is a puppet controlled by Raul Castro. The same holds true for Manuel Marrero Cruz as prime minister.

The succession is not to make Miguel Díaz-Canel or Manuel Marrero Cruz the new dictator, but to maintain the Castro dynasty in control of Cuba.

Lamentably, Cuba will have to wait for another with the courage and audacity of a José Miró Cardona to be prime minister of the island nation. 

58th Anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day

In Solidarity with a Free Tibet.

 
Today my thoughts and prayers are with the brave people of Tibet who have spent decades resisting the occupation of Communist China over their homeland.  While at the same time showing their solidarity with other captive peoples, including Cubans and for that I will be eternally grateful and in solidarity with their freedom struggle. Below is today's statement by Tibet's Prime Minister.

March 10, 2017

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay,
Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration

Statement on the 58th Anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day:

"On this day, in 1959, Tibetans from across the social spectrum rose up to stage a defiant yet peaceful uprising against the illegal occupation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China. Today, as we commemorate the fifty-eighth anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day, we remember and pay tribute to all those who have sacrificed their lives for our nation’s struggle. Till date, an estimated million Tibetans have perished and 98% of monasteries were destroyed under the Chinese occupation."

Although, today is a time for us to mourn, however there are reasons for us to be proud and hopeful. Hopeful of the fact that on this historic day, Tibetan men and women from all three provinces marched in unison, bravely challenging Chinese invasion by raising the slogans…. “Tibet belongs to Tibetans,” and “stop interfering in His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s rule,” thus making known their aspirations.

Even today, as we speak there is a major military presence in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, and on March 3 this year, a 5000-strong army officers with a convoy of 1000 military vehicles conducted a massive military drill in Lhasa making it reminiscent of a war zone.

Since then, despite the repression and crackdown, Tibetans in Tibet have been at the forefront of the Tibetan freedom struggle to protect their political, social, cultural and environmental rights. Despite the increased repression and intensified crackdown, they have made clear their genuine aspirations, as reflected in the case of 145 self-immolations that called for “Freedom for Tibetans” and “Return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.”

The resilience of Tibetan people and commitment to non-violence have gained the respect, and support from around the world.

[Read the Full Statement]