Word: castro
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...possible fissure within the ruling elite was the execution last July of Major General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, a celebrated war hero, and three other officers. Though they were charged with drug smuggling and corruption, many Cuban exiles believe their real crime was to pose a threat to Castro and his brother Raul, the Defense Minister and heir designate. Meanwhile, the government jailed at least ten human-rights activists last year. The U.S. State Department's annual human-rights report, which was issued last week, lambasted Cuba's record, which it said had "worsened significantly...
Cuba's lifeline of direct economic and military aid from Moscow -- about $5.5 billion annually -- may be choked off as well. Gorbachev is under increasing pressure to cut back Castro's allowance, as Soviet citizens tire of propping him up while their own economy languishes. And Gorbachev may find it irksome that despite his professed repudiation of exported revolution, his financial support allows Castro to continue backing communist regimes and insurgencies in the Third World...
Perhaps the most significant fount of dissent in Cuba is the generation gap. Half of Cuba's 10 million people were born after Castro seized power in 1959. "People who lived through the revolution had a sense of what they were fighting against," says a U.S. State Department official. "The kids who have grown up since don't. All they've been told is austerity, austerity, less and less freedom...
...substantially its $15 million-a-day subsidy to Havana. The handout, after all, is not pure charity, since the Soviet military derives enormous benefits from having a beachhead in the Western hemisphere. In recent months, the Soviets have delivered two advanced MiG-29 fighters to the island. Still, Castro is edgy. For the first time, he suggested publicly in January that the Soviets might abandon him, in which case, he said, Cuba was prepared to live "under a wartime economy." Says Wayne Smith, director of Cuban Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: "Castro sees that...
Despite the obstacles against him, no one is dismissing El Comandante just yet. "Castro is charismatic, even if his popularity has eroded some," says Smith. "It could be argued that he would win an open election even today." The "maximum leader" maintains his high favor by constantly mixing with ordinary folks, thereby cultivating a keen sense of popular sentiment. Observes a senior Cuban official: "He is not like Honecker and Ceausescu, who lost touch with their people." And unlike the communist regimes imposed on Eastern Europe after World War II, Castro's revolution was a homegrown affair that quickly attracted...