“Curiouser and Curiouser”

December 2, 2007.

Mark the day on your calendars.

That’s the day we find out if Raul is putting his older half brother out to pasture. The hand picked candidates that will be on the ballot to be part of the Cuban Parliament have already been “selected” by the party according to Granma. If you’re not on that list, you can’t be unanimously “selected” President.

Last week we were playing around with the notion that the Cubazuela idea was most likely Fidel’s. By all indications, though Raul doesn’t mind fleecing Chavez’s petro dollars, he doesn’t share the “love and admiration” that Fidel has for Hugo. The Cubazuela proposal has really only been articulated by Perez Roque and Lague who are considered Fidel loyalists and Chavez who idolizes the tyrant.

If Fidel’s name isn’t on the list on Dec. 2, then it’s probably a no go for Cubazuela on the Cuban side. Ironically that’s the same day that Venezuelans will be voting on whether they want Venezuela to have a constitutional dictatorship and on whether Venezuela can enter into “Federations” as part of its new charter. Regardless of what the polls say, I expect the constitutional changes to win approval- a go-go on the Venezuelan side.

That might set up a showdown of sorts between Chavez, who considers himself Fidel’s heir and Raul who probably has no intentions of playing second banana to a foreigner.

You add to this the way Chavez keeps making friends and influencing people and you can see why Raul seems to be setting the stage, behind it of course, to make nice with the Empire.

“Curiouser and Curiouser”