With the military controlling a good share of Cuba's tourism, electronics imports and foreign currency reserves, the defense minister is as much entrepreneur as soldier. Now that he's filling in as president for his ailing brother, Fidel, Raul Castro can count on a network of similarly positioned uniformed and retired officers who are as loyal to him from behind their desks as they were on the battlefields of Angola and Ethiopia.
| “What they are interested in is maintaining their status...” |
Those generals and colonels are known as "Raulistas," and their loyalty has helped them move into the highest echelons of the government and the economy.
Even dissident Vladimiro Roca, a former fighter pilot under Castro's command before breaking with the government, believes Castro has the military leadership's support. But more than either Castro, they are "committed to the system," Roca said of the generals. "What they are interested in is maintaining their status."
| Isn't the Russian word for that 'apparatchik'? |
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