Succession gets complicated
Carlos Alberto Montaner
If Fidel
Castro decided to die today, the wake would be full of people more nervous
than mournful. Raúl, his brother and heir, might not find it so simple to
assume power, much less exercise it effectively. Once again, powerful
testimony has surfaced about his very close links to the Medellín drug
cartel during the 1980s, a disclosure that would be devastating for any head
of state.
Strange as it may seem, in this capricious
world of ours it is more serious and disqualifying to be a drug trafficker
and accomplice in the shipment to the United States and Europe of tons of
drugs than to be responsible for thousands of executions and abuses against
democrats and dissidents.
Drug connection
The news came to light some weeks ago in a
report from Televisión Española. The source was John Jairo Velásquez, better
known as ''Popeye,'' right-hand man and chief of security of Pablo Escobar,
the Medellín Cartel capo who was gunned down in 1993. From the Bogotá
prison where he is held for murder, Popeye gave all kinds of details about
the close relations between Raúl Castro and the Colombian drug barons. His
testimony was very similar, of course, to that given by another Colombian
drug trafficker, Carlos Lehder, some years ago.
Without wasting a second, the Cuban government
tried to raise doubts about Popeye's truthfulness -- he's planning to
publish his memoirs under the Churchillian title of Blood, Betrayal and
Death. But the Colombian hit man's assertions match to the millimeter
the information already in the DEA's hands, including photographs that show
how military bases on the island are used for the unloading and reshipment
of drugs.
Those who know how Cuba's intelligence and
armed forces operate find it absolutely impossible to believe that those
operations could be carried out without the knowledge and approval of the
high command, most especially of Raúl Castro, competent and meticulous chief
of the military apparatus for more than four decades.
Extradition
The next step in this truculent episode lies
halfway between diplomacy and justice. It is possible that the United
States, a victim of the drug-trafficking operations authorized and backed by
Raúl Castro, may ask the Colombian government to demand the extradition of
the illustrious brother so that he may respond to these accusations in a
court room, inasmuch as he's not protected by any kind of immunity.
After all, if Popeye's testimony served to
indict former Colombian Senator Alberto Santofimio Botero for instigating in
1989 the assassination of liberal leader and presidential hopeful Luis
Carlos Galán, it could hardly be ignored in the case of Gen. Raúl Castro.
That petition would also coincide with another
made recently by José Basulto, lead pilot of Brothers to the Rescue, who in
1996 was the target of an attack by Cuban military planes against his fleet
of three unarmed civilian planes over international waters. The attack ended
in the downing of two planes and four young men murdered, a deed for which
Basulto quite justifiably blames Raúl Castro directly.
Naturally, nobody expects Fidel Castro to turn
his brother over to Colombian justice, much less to U.S. justice. But the
political impact of this renewed scandal could totally derail the succession
plan in Cuba.
Legitimacy
Cuba's military brass, the Communist Party,
the Interior Ministry and government agencies are convinced that after the
comandante's death they will desperately need a figure that will give
international legitimacy to an unpopular, tottering and totally
anachronistic regime. The ruling elite cannot look kindly upon the rise to
head of state of a person stigmatized by drug trafficking.
Also, it would be highly dangerous, as shown in the case of Panama after
the invasion that toppled Noriega in December 1989. Nobody in the world
moved a finger to protect him. It is very difficult to defend drug
traffickers.
May 29, 2005
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