Ion Mihai Pacepa on Raul Castro

By Aussiegirl

Invaluable information on Cuba's next dictator from Ion Pacepa, the highest ranking KGB general every to defect to the West. Looks like Raul Castro has been running the country with Fidel as figurehead for years. It doesn't look like there will be any loosening of repression under Raul, and as a matter of fact, the control may tighten. Any dictator worth his salt knows that the most dangerous time for any tyranny is when the reins slacken slightly and some small liberalization occurs. Crackdowns are probably in order. This is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the involvement of Soviet communism and the long-standing ties to Latin America.

Ion Mihai Pacepa on Raul Castro on National Review Online

Fidel Castro may be on his deathbed. Or he’s already gone. Unfortunately, in the Communist countries of Latin heritage, the tyrants came in pairs — buy one, get one free. Communist Romania got Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. Cuba got Fidel and Raúl Castro. On Christmas Day 1989 the Romanians rid themselves of both Ceausescus, and twelve years later Romania joined NATO. Cuba will soon be left with one Castro, who is heir to the throne.

So who is Raúl Castro? While Western experts speculate that he may plan on shifting Cuba toward collective leadership and democracy, that’s nothing but wishful thinking. To be sure, I wish they were right, but Raúl has transformed a paradise on earth into a shambles, and there is good reason to believe that he will turn Cuba into an even worse tyranny.

I met Raúl many times, both in Cuba and in Romania. He had coordinating responsibility for the Cuban intelligence service (the Dirección General de Inteligencia, or DGI), and in the early 1970s he entered into a drug venture with my former service (the Departamentul de Informatii Externe ,or DIE). Whenever he was not in Havana or Moscow, he was in Bucharest. We worked, talked, fished, and snorkeled together. We challenged each other at the firing range; he was an excellent shot. Together we raced our identical Alfa Romeo cars. I saw nothing in him suggesting he might ever want to democratize Cuba.

Raúl was always under the influence — of alcohol and self-importance. My Cuban intelligence counterpart in those days, Sergio del Valle, who was Raúl’s closest associate going back to their early days in the Sierra Maestra, used to call his boss “Raúl the Terrible” in a semi-serious allusion to the first Russian to crown himself tsar. Raúl was Cuba’s uncrowned tsar — his official title was “Maximum General.” Fidel gave the speeches, hour after hour. Raúl ran Cuba’s economy, her foreign policy, her foreign trade, her justice system, her jails, her tourism — even her hotels and her beaches.

Raúl is generally perceived as a colorless minister of defense, but he has also been the brutal head of one of Communism’s most criminal institutions: the Cuban political police. I met him in that capacity. He was cruel and ruthless. Fidel may have conceived the terror that has kept Cuba in the Communist fold, but Raúl has been the butcher. He has been instrumental in the killing and terrorizing of thousands of Cubans, and there is no question in my mind but that he would fight tooth and nail to preserve his powers. Otherwise, sooner or later Raúl would have to account for his crimes, and I do not know him to be suicidal.