Elections? What Elections?

I hadn't posted on the "ratifications" going on in Cuba, because with something like 614 candidates and something like 614 offices... Well, do the math. "Elect" requires choice. For some reason, however, the so-called "elections" have evoked a rash of the isn't-it-wonderful-it-looks-like-reform stories. Of course, regardless of what it looks like, it smells like the SOS.

Here's one from the LA Times, which quotes Jaime Suchlicki, making sure to qualify his comments with "whose analysis often reflects the views of Miami's anti-Castro exiles." How come I never see one of those for the other side, you know, "Known apologist for and lickspittle to the repressive Cuban regime"? That's just one of those mysteries, you know.

Anyway, take a gander at this little nugget from the article:

Nonetheless, Suchlicki, whose analysis often reflects the views of Miami's anti-Castro exiles, shares the expectation of other Cuba watchers that if Fidel Castro hasn't fully recovered his health and vigor by the March assembly opening, he will step down as president and he and his brother Raul, who is 76, will make way for a younger head of state.

Many expect Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, a 56-year-old former physician, to take the helm, which would open the way for the architect of a previous reform period to tackle the economic problems that most concern Cubans. Monthly income on the island averages about $15, and though Cubans pay almost nothing for healthcare and a monthly ration basket, food costs rival those in U.S. supermarkets.



Now wait a minute. If anyone thinks that the two dics are going to retire and, as some journalist once suggested, tend to their roses, I beg to differ. Call me crazy, but I can't see them going gently into that good night. Rather, were I to wake to find Lage in Charge, I'd suspect a palace coup.

Cross-posted at Babalublog