Fidel still taking credit for little brother’s ideas

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It seems that “Fidel the blogger” is in no hurry to leave Cuba’s political limelight In his first column for Granma since stepping down as Cuba’s president, Fidel Castro explained his role in putting together his brother Raúl’s new military-heavy governing team. (He also took a gratuitous shot at presumptive U.S. Republican nominee John McCain.)

I was consulted during the process of putting together a list of candidates for the position of first vice president that he held, and of which no one was stripped. I did not demand to be consulted. It was Raúl and the country’s top leaders who decided to consult me. Similarly, it was my decision to ask the Candidacy Commission to include Leopoldo Cintra Frías and Alvaro López Miera, who joined the Rebel Army combatants when they were only 15, on the list of candidates for the Council of State. The two are much younger than McCain and have more experience as military leaders, as demonstrated by their victorious internationalist feats…These were the moves the chess board itself decided. They were not the fruit of Raúl’s alleged militaristic tendencies, nor was it a question of different generations or factions rabidly fighting over a mundane slice of power.

Naturally, Compañero Fidel also had a few choice words for all the haters:

You can now hear the howls of wolves trapped by their tails,” he wrote. “They are so rabid over the election of Machadito [José Ramon Macado Ventura] as first vice president.”

Raúl has taken some flack for promoting these aging, military idealogues to his governing council and this Reuters story suggests that Fidel may be trying to take some of the heat off the new president. Still, I can’t see that he does little brother any favors by reinforcing the preception that he’s pulling strings behind the scenes.