Monday, August 16, 2010

Fidel Castro Returns to his Cuban Theater of Subterfuge

By Jerry Brewer

Former President Fidel Castro of Cuba has once again returned to his glittering stage laced with smoke and mirrors.  Although a mere specter of his once physically strong and boisterous command presence, his costume of revolution of olive-green fatigues were tailored as well as possible — albeit from another era of violent revolutionary history and minus his military adornments.

As Castro took to his mark at center stage in his once familiar arena, his familiar and ambidextrous dialogue did not fail him — although his memory clearly did.  His run and act of 49 years was in fact revolution and intense venomous hatred of the United States.  He began his lines once again from where he left off.

“My job is to draw attention to topics and events and let others decide,” Castro explained. “You should understand that our (leaders) are not people I should order around or tell what to do. I want them to think for themselves,” Castro said last week in Havana.

Diverting from the obvious attention in Venezuela of documentation provided of FARC revolutionary presence and their conflict with Colombia; as well as Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos announcement that the writ against revolutionary ETA and FARC members allegedly plotting to kill Colombians in Spain has been sent to Cuba and Venezuela for their support in hunting down ETA militants, Castro warned of potential U.S. nuclear war.

Posing and gesturing, the 84 year old and white-bearded Castro focused his performance under the lights on repeatedly warning that “the U.S. ‘empire' could start a nuclear war.”  Castro has written on the topic of nuclear war for months, and maintains that the United States and Israel will attack Iran, and that Washington could also target North Korea.

Much of his recent credits and acts include addressing and mentoring “communist youth meetings and other Cuban intellectuals.”

Castro’s context and timing with Latin America’s critical armed revolutionary dilemmas in the forefront appear to be deliberate transference of attention to potential nuclear war in Iran and the Korean Peninsula by the “empire.”

He did lend an ear and an opinion on Mexico.

Also last week, in a published commentary, Fidel Castro suggested to leftist Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that he join the “struggle” to prevent the United States from unleashing nuclear war.  With Lopez Obrador recently announcing that he plans to make another run for Mexico’s presidency in 2012, Castro stated, “The empire did not allow him to assume the office in Mexico,” referring to the 2006 election; and Lopez Obrador “will be the person with the most moral and political authority in Mexico when the system collapses and, with it, the empire.”

In Castro’s recent article he stated that he shares the opinion of Lopez Obrador about Mexican magnate Carlos Slim, whom Castro calls “an intelligent man who knows all the secrets of the markets and mechanisms of the capitalist system.”  Too, he reiterated, “… the fact [is] that in the United States a colossal drug market has been created and its military industry supplies the most sophisticated weapons that have turned Mexico into the first victim of a bloody war in which already every year more than 5,000 Mexican youths are dying.”

As the designated lead in Cuba’s continued revolutionary picture, President Raul Castro (who took over from his brother Fidel in 2008) is still largely an understudy, as an example copiously taking notes from his chair during Fidel’s recent media appearance.  However, Fidel still commands center stage and, as he is first secretary of the governing Communist Party, it indicates an inherent power.

It appears that Fidel Castro must continue to deflect attention from his cast of leftist protégés due to ever-increasing evidence mounting against them.  The U.S. State Department named Cuba as harboring Colombian guerrillas in a recent "Country Report on Terrorism 2009.” The report found that there was "no evidence of direct financial support for terrorist organizations by Cuba in 2009," although the communist regime "continued to provide safe haven" to members of the Colombian guerrilla groups FARC and ELN, as well as the Basque separatist group ETA, and it provided them 'with living, logistical, and medical support."

Fidel Castro’s appearances continue to conceal Cuba’s repressive laws, sinister state security apparatus, the silencing of government opponents, and a stated obligation of the Cuban government to respect the human rights and dignity of all Cubans.  Where is Cuba’s good faith effort to dismantle the repressive ideology?

Whether Fidel Castro will soon face his final curtain call or not, when he does exit it will still be stage-left.

—————————— 

Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.  His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.