Fidel's Brother Takes The Reins In Cuba

Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president on Sunday, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel but leaving the island's communist system unshaken.

In a surprise move, an old guard revolutionary leader was named No. 2, suggesting that major changes are not likely anytime soon.

The vote came just five days after the ailing 81-year-old president said he was retiring, capping a career in which he frustrated efforts by 10 U.S. presidents to oust him.

Jose Ramon Machado, who fought alongside the Castro brothers in the Sierra Maestra during the late 1950s, was named to the No. 2 slot that Raul Castro had previously held. He is 76 years old, like Raul Castro.

Cabinet secretary Carlos Lage, who many had expected would move up into the first vice president slot, maintained his spot as one of five other vice presidents on the governing Council of State.

The other four vice presidents included Juan Almeida Bosque, 80, a historic revolutionary leader; Interior Minister Abeldardo Colomoe Ibarra, 68; Esteban Lazo Hernandez, 63, a longtime Communist Party leader, and Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro, 71, who was Raul Castro's No. 2 at the Defense Ministry.

"The selection of Raul Castro to be Cuba's new President was an anticipated choice, designed to extend the revolutionary regime created fifty years ago," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, "but with Fidel Castro remaining in power as head of the Communist Party, the ability of Raul Castro to implement any reforms, if he had even intended to, will be limited."

"Raul Castro does have the historic opportunity to change the course of Cuban politics," added Falk, "but, given his history as Defense Minister at Fidel Castro's side, it is unlikely that any major political reforms will occur."

In his first speech as Cuba's new leader, Raul Castro said he could continue to consult Fidel Castro on important decisions of state.

CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum said that the selection "sends a message to the world that Fidel Castro is not out of the picture yet," promising continuity in both domestic and international policies.

They certainly didn't make any changes to please the United States, Siegelbaum notes: The appointment of Machado as first vice president was a surprise. Most people expected Lage, who is only 56 and has already served in a position equivalent to prime minister, to become First Vice President. Instead they chose a 75-year-old Communist party ideologue and long-time aid to Fidel Castro who is considered a hard liner. "The younger guy moved down the totem pole," Siegelbaum said.

"So even though Fidel is not sitting on the Council of State, his presence is heavily felt."

Nevertheless, in Raul Castro's speech afterwards, he talked about the need to improve people's lives, with an emphasis on economics: wages have to become living wages (being able to live off of legitimate jobs rather than money earned on the black market); reevaluating the Cuban currency; and taking a look at the services that are heavily subsidized by the government.

Since taking over as Acting President, Raul Castro has actually encouraged Cubans to come forward with complaints or opinions about what needed to be done to make life better; about two million such comments are being examined, and Castro said they are moving slowly but in a consistent way to respond to as many of those problems as is possible.

He also hinted that there are other changes coming down the road - perhaps changes in travel restrictions, steps that don't require a lot of building up of the economy, but that people would be pleased with.

Siegelbaum suggests today's development send a double message: "We didn't throw Fidel out, but yes, times have changed and we have to do something to catch up with them."

Speaking from Havana this morning, Siegelbaum said that while Raul Castro has been running the government for more than a year now, he had been doing so perhaps a bit reluctantly: "He's never seemed to be a person who's really wanted the position of president of the country. He's kind of always implied that he at some point hopes he'll be able to retire and spend some time with his family.

"But I think it's something he will take on, feeling it's very important, for the national identity and for U.S.-Cuba relations, to maintain a Castro in power."

Earlier today, as the names of the new National Assembly's 614 members were read aloud, mention of the absent Castro drew a standing ovation. Castro's absentee ballot with his votes for governing Council of State members, including his replacement, was delivered to parliament.

Parliament gave another standing ovation to Raul Castro.

The younger Castro has headed Cuba's caretaker government for 19 months, ever since Fidel announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding his powers.

Siegelbaum said she was told by one member of parliament that Raul Castro is expected to deliver what was described as "an important and substantial speech" later today.

Fidel Castro has held the position of head of state since the current government structure was created in 1976. For 18 years before that, he was prime minister - a post that no longer exists.

This morning, a slate for the National Assembly leadership picked by the Candidates Commission was presented, with current assembly president Ricardo Alarcón at the head, and current vice president Jaime Crombet also up for reelection.

Candidates for the 31 seats on the Council of State were then approved, followed by secret balloting. The newly-elected Council members then voted in a private session for the executive branch of the government: President, First Vice President, Secretary, and five additional Vice Presidents, with the announcement of the results expected around 2 p.m.

Cuban television has not carried the opening session, but was expected to broadcast the selection of the new leaderership this afternoon.

Fidel Castro remains the head of the Communist Party as first secretary, and said he would continue to write political columns. Despite his absence from the floor of the Assembly, his position guarantees "that he will remain the most powerful voice in Cuba," said Falk.

"Although it would seem that Raul Castro has an historic opportunity to change the course of Cuban history, Fidel Castro's published missives in the days since he resigned have made clear that he believes only he has the ideological firepower to lash out against U.S. Presidential candidates' suggestion that political reform is possible," said Falk.

Castro wrote in an essay published Friday that preparations for the parliament meeting "left me exhausted," and when he finally decided not to accept another presidential term, he did not regret it.

"I slept better than ever," he wrote. "My conscience was clear and I promised myself a vacation."

In the eastern Cuba district that Fidel Castro represents as a lawmaker, residents debated on Saturday who should replace him.

"Fidel is the greatest for us, but the most important thing now is that he rests and takes good care of himself," said 72-year-old retiree Juan Alvarez. "I think that he made an intelligent decision - like all the decisions he made" since launching Cuba's revolution in the mid-1950s.

Alvarez said he would accept whoever is chosen by the National Assembly, "and if it is Raul, well, that would be correct."

Sitting with him in a park in the town of El Cobre, on the outskirts of Santiago, was 70-year-old Javier Solano, who noted that Raul Castro is no longer young, either.

"It would be good to look for a young replacement, like Fidel himself said in one of his writings, so that Cuba can show the world it is not like they say, that here there is only Fidel and Raul," said Solano. "There is a whole nation as well behind them."