Dead or alive, Fidel Castro will be on Cuba's ballot

The Associated Press

Fidel Castro keeps going... and going... and going...

Featured Topic | Posted 43 weeks 2 days ago

Dead or alive, Fidel Castro will be on Cuba's ballot

After nearly 50 years, 10 U.S. presidents, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fidel Castro is still clinging to power in Cuba. The communist leader will appear on Cuba's ballot next month, where he faces no serious opposition except from his own failing health.

How should the United States treat Cuba in the eventual post-Castro era? Have elaborate policies aimed at isolating and punishing Cuba worked? Should the Kennedy-era embargo remain in place?

Ben likes: Fidel's future

Georgie Anne Geyer/Universal Press Syndicate

The next step is for the parliament to meet on Feb. 24 and declare a new Council of State, the formal communist body of 30 persons that Fidel has headed in the past. Would he now retire? Could this be the end of the Fidel era, which, beginning in 1959, makes him the longest ruling leader in the world?

Don't take any bets on it. For better or for worse, we have the indomitable Fidel of history. The man who, despite his recent words, has not so much "clung" to power as dominated power and has never allowed any new generation to assume authority.

Joel likes: Stop shackling America's interests

Steve Clemons/The Washington Note

We need to make judgments about the future course of US-Cuban relations according to our parochial interests today -- and to realize that commerce, travel, the exchange of people, ideas, facebook commentary, and money are powerful empowering forces that cannot make the current situation worse than it is. In fact, there is every indication that ending the travel and economic embargo of the United States would open many new positive and constructive possibilities both within Cuba and between Cuba and the United States.

We have been lousy at trying to script a regime strategy for Cuba. We need to stop it -- and stop thinking about it and let Cubans determine their own course, which I think America can softly and positively influence if we stop trying to demean and humiliate that nation.