Raul Castro: Communist Party will unite Cuba after Fidel dies

Raul Castro: Communist Party will unite Cuba after Fidel dies

By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press

June 15, 2006, 1:53 PM EDT

HAVANA -- Cuba's Communist Party will remain the source of political
power on the island with or without Fidel Castro, the president's
brother Raul Castro said in comments published Thursday.

Raul Castro, the island's defense minister and designated successor of
79-year-old Fidel Castro, dismissed claims that Cuba's political system
would change dramatically after his brother is no longer president,
saying the party would quickly fill any political vacuum.

``Only the Communist Party _ as the institution that brings together the
revolutionary vanguard and will always guarantee the unity of Cubans _
can be the worthy heir of the trust deposited by the people in their
leader,'' he said in a speech Wednesday marking a military anniversary.

``Anything more is pure speculation,'' he added.

As first vice president of the Council of State, Cuba's supreme
governing body, the 75-year-old is legally designated to assume his
brother's role as president of the council in the event of ``absence,
illness or death.'' Fidel Castro turns 80 in August.

As the world's longest ruling defense minister, Raul Castro appears to
have the loyalty of the nation's top generals, giving him control over
as many as 50,000 active troops and firepower that includes Soviet-era
tanks and MiG fighter planes.

In his speech, he said Cuba's emphasis on building a strong military has
been justified by the constant threat posed by the United States ever
since Fidel Castro embraced communism.

``We Cubans are conscious of the fact that without the effort sustained
by our people to consolidate the defensive capacity of the country, we
would have ceased to exist as an independent nation a long time ago,''
he said.

He said the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq proved how far the United States
will go with its ``imperialist aims of planetary hegemony.''

With that war, he said, ``It became obvious that the hawks of the empire
were considering the possibility of settling scores with those who
represented an obstacle to their dreams of world domination.'' Cuba, he
added, is surely near the top of their ``target'' list.

With this in mind, the Cuban military has been steadily strengthened
over the past few years, Raul Castro said. Hundreds of kilometers of
underground tunnels have been built to shelter citizens in the case of
an invasion, and endless hours devoted to ``dispassionate analysis of
the strengths and weaknesses of our likely enemy,'' he said.

But Cuba does not see the American people as enemies, he said _ just the
U.S. government.

Raul Castro fought alongside his brother in the 1950s during the battle
to topple the government of former Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista. Othe

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