Politburo

Senior Chinese military official to visit Cuba

October 23, 2011

Via Xinhuanet: Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, General Guo Boxiong left Beijing today to pay official goodwill visits to Cuba, Colombia and Peru. Guo was invited by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), Colombia’s Defense Ministry and Peru’s Defense Ministry. Guo will meet state and military leaders and visit the armed forces and [...]

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Raul’s son as next defense minister?

September 5, 2011

Yoani Sanchez tweeted today: A friend fears that the next Cuban defense minister will be Alejandro Castro Espin; in January he’ll go to the Politburo and the dynastic succession guaranteed. Alejandro Castro Espín is a colonel in the Interior Ministry and along with Senen ‘Senénsito’ Casas Regueiro (son of the late Division General Senén Casas [...]

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Cuban perestroika?

June 9, 2011

Pravada columnist Vadim Trukhachev asks in his recent column whether Army General Raúl Castro is the Cuban Gorbachev. This month marks the twenty-second anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. In a USSR Politburo meeting on October 4, 1989, Anatoly Lukyanov (Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) reports that the real number of casualties [...]

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Tropical stratocracy

April 20, 2011

Random House Dictionary (2011) defines stratocracy as government by the military. Key military officers control the state security apparatus that vigilantly guards over the Cuban regime. The government’s economic lifeline pulses through the administration of income generating businesses under the control of a military officers. Cuba’s armed forces, through its active and retired military officers, are well [...]

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Nomenklatura remains entrenched (Updated)

April 19, 2011

2009 hrs Secretariat — Cuban Communist Party Encabezado por José Ramón Machado Ventura Esteban Lazo Hernández Abelardo Álvarez Gil Víctor Gaute López Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias José Ramón Balaguer Misael Enamorado Dager Central Committee — Cuban Communist Party (There are 20 generals in the CC.) Misleydy Abad Modey Gral de Div. Onelio Aguilera Bermúdez Liudmila Álamo Dueñas Ricardo [...]

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No. 3′s influence

January 8, 2011

Changes made by Raúl Castro’s government reinforces the influence of No. 3, Ramiro Valdés, the regime’s third man, who will supervise three key ministries (Construction, Basic Industry and Communications and Information). Ramirito, a “historico” of the Cuban revolution and member of Fidel Castro’s iron circle, is also Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and a member [...]

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