Country Profile: Cuba - American Memory - Library of Congress

Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Cuba, September 2006
Granma, the official communist party newspaper, published photos of Castro being visited in his
hospital room on his birthday by his brother and President Chávez. Despite Castro’s apparent
improvement, in late September there was no indication that he would be resuming the full roster
of his previous powers anytime soon, if at all. The temporary transfer of power, described by
some observers as a dress rehearsal for a post-Castro transition, appeared more likely to become
the actual succession. Nor was there any clear evidence that the leadership transition would
evolve toward democratization, despite the assertion of opposition leader Osvaldo José Payá
Sadinas that fidelismo would not survive Fidel and that Raúl Castro’s assumption of power
would mean the country had entered a stage of substantial democratic opening. In the shorter
term, according to some outside experts, a likely scenario is for Raúl Castro to serve as a
pragmatic but low-profile chairman of a collective leadership until elections are held for the
Council of State president and first secretary of the PCC.
Likely key leaders include the aforementioned younger-generation leaders, but particularly Lage
Dávila and Pérez Roque, along with National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada,
who is Cuba’s most experienced diplomat. Although Raúl Castro apparently retains strong
support within the FAR for his competent management of one of Cuba’s strongest institutions as
well as for his successful command of the FAR during three overseas wars, his leadership of a
post–Fidel Castro administration would itself likely be transitional because of his age—he turned
75 on June 3, 2006, reportedly poor health, and lack of his brother’s charisma and national and
international stature. Interior Minister and Army Corps General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, who is
next in the hierarchy of power after Raúl Castro, would be another likely transitional candidate;
as a revolutionary comrade of the Castro brothers, Colomé would likely advocate a continued
strong military role in government.
Executive Branch: The 31-member Council of State, whose members and president are elected
by the National Assembly of Popular Power to serve as the Assembly’s permanent organ, is, in
effect, the highest decision-making representative of the state because the National Assembly
meets only twice a year for a few days each time. The president of the Council of State is also
president of the Council of Ministers, in which executive and administrative authority is vested,
and thus serves as both chief of state and head of government. In mid-2006, the Council of
Ministers had 28 ministry posts (two of which were vacant), including the minister without
portfolio. The constitution empowers the Council of Ministers, as the highest executive and
administrative organ, to issue regulations to administer laws and decrees and to authorize
exceptions to state ownership of the means of production. The ministers are responsible
principally to the Council’s nine-member Executive Committee, which includes its president,
first vice president, and five other vice presidents. The Executive Committee is the decisionmaking
body of the Council of Ministers, and one of its main functions is to oversee the
administration of the economy. The Council of Ministers answers to the National Assembly and
to the Council of State. The president and vice presidents of the Council of State and the
National Assembly elect ministers for a term of five years. Elections were last held in March
2003 and are next scheduled for 2008.
The 24-member Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba
(Partido Comunista de Cuba—PCC) is the party’s leading decision-making institution and
Cuba’s most important decision-making entity. The PCC monopolizes all government positions,
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