Promoting Blog Effectively, Fidel Castro, decidedly languid but reasonably lucid, showed up on Cuban television Monday evening, July 12, to warn the world that the U.S. is poised to attack North Korea and Iran. (We'll take that under advisement.) But the rare appearance by the 83-year-old former Cuban leader was more noticeable for what he didn't mention: last week's surprising decision by his younger brother, current President Raúl Castro, to release 52 political prisoners who had been arrested in 2003 during one of Fidel's harshest crackdowns on dissidents while he was President.
Promoting Blog Effectively It's unclear whether Fidel's silence means he disapproved of the move. But the U.S. seems just as happy that the ailing autocrat, who ceded the presidency to Raúl four years ago for health reasons but still wields considerable influence, didn't make a big deal of freeing the prisoners (seven of whom arrived in Spain on Tuesday; the remaining 45 will be released in the coming months). That's because the Obama Administration isn't making a big deal of the dissidents' release either. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the move "a positive sign" and "very welcome" but also downplayed it as "overdue." There was nothing in her statement to suggest that the Administration planned to respond in any way that might further engage communist Cuba with a view to promoting democratization.
