The unexpected fall of two Cuban transition candidates

Mar 6, 2009, 5:26 GMT

Havana - Felipe Perez Roque and Carlos Lage were regarded as likely stars in a potential Cuban transition until they fell from grace earlier this week and resigned from all their positions Thursday.

Following days of speculation, Cubans woke up Thursday to find published in state media the resignation letters of two men who were once heavyweights in Cuban politics and had been seen as likely stars for the moment in which the revolutionaries of 50 years ago were to hand over power to the generations born under communism.

On Monday, Raul Castro announced the exits of these two men in a Cabinet reshuffle that featured a total of 11 changes of portfolio. No new positions were announced for Perez Roque and Lage, and no explanations were given for their removal.

Popular culture has already found a headline for the political incident, 'The Fallen Gods,' a tribute to one of the most popular films on the communist island.

Analysts, observers, journalists and Cuban experts generally saw the move - accompanied by a wider militarization of the Cabinet - as a 'de-Fidelization' process. The Cuban government had so far basically stayed as it was under Raul Castro's brother and predecessor Fidel.

In his letter to 'Comrade Raul' dated Tuesday, Lage said he resigned as a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and of its Politburo, as well as stepping down from his position as 'a legislator, a member of the Council of State and a vice president of the Council of State.'

A day earlier, Cuban President Raul Castro had removed him from his position as secretary of the Cuban Council of Ministers, a sort of Cuban prime minister.

'I admit the mistakes I have made and I take responsibility for them,' Lage said in his letter.

Perez Roque - who was regarded for years as the 'dauphin' of historic Cuban leader Fidel Castro - was the island's foreign minister for nearly 10 years, despite being just 41 when Raul Castro removed him from the position Monday.

He wrote in very similar terms to Lage's, as he announced his resignation as a member of the Council of State, a legislator and a member of the Central Committee of the PCC.

'I fully acknowledge that I made mistakes,' Perez Roque said. 'I take full responsibility for them.'

However, Cubans had not yet had time to digest the shocking news when another 'bomb' went off.

The elderly Fidel Castro - who retired from public life in July 2006 to recover from an unspecified illness and was formally succeeded by his brother over a year ago - put pen to paper. As he put it, there was no such thing as a 'de-Fidelization,' no change of 'Fidel's men' for 'Raul's men.'

What had happened, Fidel Castro wrote, was practically treason.

'The honey of power for which they knew no sacrifice awoke in them ambitions that led them to an unworthy role,' the elderly Castro said of the dismissal of his former aides.

He did not mention the two men by name or provide specific details, but noted that the country's 'external enemy got all excited with them.'

The traditional Cuban leader cast further doubts on the incident, and there have been no further official details of the 'unworthy role' that might have caused the fall from grace of the two men.

Perez Roque and Lage themselves speak of nothing more than 'mistakes,' a self-criticism that refers to Cuba's past and only triggers further speculation.