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Article: Raul Castro's appointments, speeches show self-preservation is No. 1 goal
- Article from:
- Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
- Article date:
- February 27, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON -- Raul Castro has killed all hope that a transition
to the rule of law and a market economy will start anytime soon in
Cuba. The appointments he has made as well as his first speech as
president and his televised conversation with Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez indicate that self-preservation is Castro's paramount
objective even if he understands the need to shake up the moribund
communist state.
Castro's appointments aim to consolidate the old guard, starting
with first Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, a fiercely
loyal party apparatchik, and including generals such as Julio Casas,
until recently Castro's second-in-command at the Ministry of Defense
and now one of ...