Castro's brother critical of inefficiencies in Cuba

Posted on Sun, Dec. 24, 2006

Castro's brother critical of inefficiencies in Cuba
Complaints against system a change of pace from ailing leader who often
extolled revolution while blaming corruption
By Anita Snow
ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAVANA - Acting president Raul Castro complained to lawmakers about
inefficiencies in the island's economy, telling them in comments made
public Saturday that there is no excuse for the transportation and food
production problems that anger many Cubans.

"In this revolution, we are tired of excuses," he said, giving the
strongest sense yet of the frank and demanding leadership style he will
likely adopt if his ailing older brother Fidel Castro does not return as
president.

After almost five months in power, it has become clear that the
75-year-old Raul Castro will call officials to account for their actions
and demand they produce real results, rather than offer mere political
platitudes.

He also has shown a willingness to criticize aspects of the communist
system that are not working.

"The revolution cannot lie," he said in comments published by the
Communist Party newspaper Granma. "This isn't saying that there have
been comrades who have lied, but the imprecision, inexact data,
consciously or unconsciously masked, can no longer continue."

Raul Castro spoke Friday afternoon during a year-end meeting of the
National Assembly. He did not address the two-hour session that
international journalists were allowed to attend in the morning.

Excerpts of his comments aired later on state television showed him
looking gruff and almost angry as spoke in a strong, controlled tone
about problems affecting average Cubans.

It was unknown how long he spoke, but Raul Castro tends toward short
speeches with concrete messages on local matters -- a sharp contrast to
his older brother's extemporaneous discourses that often ran many hours
while ranging over philosophical thoughts on world and Cuban affairs.

Lacking the charisma of his more famous brother, Raul Castro will need
to make changes that improve the lives of Cubans to gain the popular
support necessary to govern over the long run.

Public transportation problems top the list of Cubans' many complaints
about the system, a litany that includes crumbling housing, insufficient
food for their families and government paychecks that don't cover basic
expenses.

Raul Castro's willingness to publicly criticize the system's failings is
a switch from the past policy under his brother of extolling the virtues
of the revolution while blaming a handful of corrupt individuals for
problems.

But it is too early to know whether his frankness could evolve into a
more generalized kind of Cuban glasnost, the policy of openness in
public discussions that was promoted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
in the late 1980s.

Fidel Castro, 80, temporarily ceded his powers to his brother July 31
when it was announced he had undergone emergency surgery for intestinal
bleeding. He has not appeared in public since, and looked thin and frail
in a government video released in late October.

Fidel's medical condition is a state secret, but Cuban authorities deny
he suffers from terminal cancer as U.S. intelligence officials say. Yet
officials also have stopped insisting he will return to power, making it
more probable that Raul, his constitutionally designated successor, will
eventually assume a permanent role.

Unlike Fidel, who in recent years rolled back modest economic reforms
adopted in the 1990s, Raul is believed to favor a limited opening up of
the economy.

Raul, who also is defense minister, has long railed against government
inefficiency.

During Friday's parliamentary session, he criticized the "bureaucratic
red tape" preventing the government from completing payments to the
individual farmers and cooperatives producing 65 percent of the island's
vegetables.

In excerpts of his comments aired Friday night on state television, Raul
Castro also criticized efforts to improve Cuba's dilapidated public
transportation, saying it is "practically on the point of collapse."

Phil Peters, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a think tank in
suburban Washington, said the willingness to blame systemic problems
rather than the moral failings of individuals was underscored in October
in a newspaper series on petty corruption.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/16311643.htm