Troy and I attended the Raleigh International Spy Conference for the past two days. The topic of this year?s conference ?Castro and Cuba: The Inside Story? was especially relevant given Fidel?s illness and his ceding power to his brother Raoul. As you will note from the agenda, speakers included former CIA agents who provided the “inside story” on the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The keynote speaker was Brian Latell a former CIA officer who headed the Cuban desk. Like the conference, Mr. Latell had good timing with his new book ?After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro?s Regime and Cuba?s Next Leader.?
Of particular interest are Mr. Latell?s views of Raoul. He believes that Raoul has all of the important power positions. Raoul is the Minister of Defense controlling the army, he is the Minister of Interior controlling the police and the intelligence service, and he is the leader of the Communist Party.
Many argue that early in the revolution in the 1950s, Raoul was the committed communist and Fidel was the opportunist. Mr. Latell argues the opposite view. Fidel urged Raoul to join the Communist Party and make contacts with Soviet agents. Fidel wanted a clean record so that he could claim that he was not a communist.
After the seizure of power in 1959, Raoul acted as the “enforcer” leading the execution squads that eliminated anyone who may oppose the new regime. In the 1960s and 1970s Raoul was the hard line Stalinist who persecuted intellectuals, artists and anyone who could possibility cause trouble for their rule.
Raoul, as minister of defense, was infatuated with the Soviet ministers of defense and he would often vacation in the Soviet Union (now that is my idea of a hardcore communist) and he had photographs of all of the Soviet ministers of defense in his office.
Mr. Latell believes that Raoul, who is 75 and a very hard drinker, may suffer health problems in the near future and not be around all that long. Currently, there is no clearly designated third in command.
As for the future, Mr. Latell is cautiously optimistic that Raoul has a ?soft? side, unlike Fidel, and that he may ease up on the economy. He notes that there are ?market? enterprises in Cuba. The tourist industry is run by the army and benefits from tourist ?profits? creating an incentive to expand the industry. While it is anyone?s guess, Roaul might follow the Chinese and Vietnamese model, freeing up the economy for small-scale enterprises, while maintaining tight political control through the army, police and communist party.
Also of note was the presentation by Humberto Fontova discussing his book “Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant.” David Horowitz provides a blurb on the back of Humberto’s book and apparently Humberto went to the Horowitz school of public speaking. His presentation was the most dynamic speech of the conference.
