One less crutch for Raúl Castro
Carlos Alberto Montaner
Gen. Raúl Castro, Cuba's
de-facto ruler, has lost his wife of almost half a century: Vilma Espín, a
77-year-old chemical engineer who was born to an affluent family in Santiago
de Cuba. She leaves four children and numerous grandchildren. One of the
grandchildren, Alejandro, is the chief of his grandfather's security detail.
One of her sons-in-law, Luis Alberto Rodríguez, a high-ranking military
officer, is in charge of the armed forces' vast economic interests.
Fidel Castro is not exactly
pleased by the media heft of his brother's family. Raúl, with some pride,
displays his children and fosters their presence in the media -- especially
daughter Mariela, a sexologist credited with intelligence and a certain
spirit of tolerance typical of her profession. Meanwhile, Fidel hides his
children, condemning his descendants to a kind of strange alienation that
has inevitably caused them serious emotional stress. That fact has been
revealed by some of his former daughters-in-law, who went into exile after
living for a while under the same roof with that peculiar family.
No social interaction
According to two of Raúl's
private secretaries who fled to the United States -- one, a former delegate
to the United Nations, arrived in a boat; the other defected in Russia,
where he was Cuba's interim ambassador; both were remarkably brilliant men
-- contact between Fidel's and Raúl's families was not fluid. They didn't
even visit each other socially.
Why? Because the relations
between the two brothers rest on foundations that are totally perverse.
Fidel, five years older than
Raúl, feels an enormous moral contempt for his brother and tells him so,
fairly frequently. Fidel values Raúl's absolute loyalty and admits that he
has a notable instinct for the bureaucratic management of the armed forces
but considers him frivolous.
Fidel is annoyed by Raúl's
episodes of alcoholism, reproaches his limited capacity for political
analysis, is irritated by his brother's notorious lack of intellectual
curiosity and criticizes him for the fatal behavioral flaw that allows
Raúl's yokel humor and vulgarity to liquidate all vestiges of the majesty
that Fidel believes should permanently envelop any leader.
Implacable silence
In turn, Raúl has lived
psychologically and emotionally subordinated to a brother he admires, even
though Fidel always has exerted his authority through intimidation and
verbal and physical abuse and at times has resorted to another type of
punishment: an implacable silence. In moments of deep anger, Fidel does not
speak to Raúl, and Raúl feels forsaken and the victim of that feeling of
guilt he first experienced in childhood. Raúl is so afraid of Fidel that
Gabriel García Márquez, on more than one occasion, has carried to Fidel the
messages Raúl did not have the nerve to deliver in person.
Despite appearances, that type
of humiliating relationship gradually eroded Espín's affection -- and that
of Raúl's entire family -- toward Fidel Castro.
It is very difficult to really
love a narcissistic psychopath like Fidel. Because of the fear they provoke,
people like him are applauded, humored and shown constant proof of
unconditional allegiance in the pursuit of survival -- but it is impossible
to appreciate them. It's the same thing that happened with Stalin, the
Dominican Rafael Trujillo or Adolf Hitler. Their underlings did not love
them with their hearts; they feared them desperately.
Good wife and mother
Espín's growing resentment
toward Fidel was predictable. No woman likes to see her husband or children
mistreated, and Espín (according to those closest to her) was a good wife
and mother.
Her death -- she was a notable
psychological bulwark to her husband -- and perhaps the not-so-distant death
of Fidel cannot but vigorously rattle Raúl's already battered conscience.
The death of the two most important people in his life must plunge him into
an emotional whirlwind.
Now 76 years old, Raúl knows he
has little time left. He knows that his brother has bequeathed to him a
country in ruins and the hallucinatory assignment to conquer the world, hand
in hand with madman Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega and similar
other agents of chaos.
He knows that all of Cuba will trudge down that
road toward catastrophe once he's not around to stop them. But he has no
idea of what to do, because his brother crushed his character back in
childhood and because he no longer has his wife to counsel him. Embraced by
thousands of grim mourners, Raúl Castro today must be one of the most
confused and solitary men in Cuba. Such are the mysteries of power.
June 26, 2007
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