Fidel Castro stepping down after nearly 50 years. Who's next in line to rule Cuba?

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Fidel Castro stepping down after nearly 50 years. Who's next in line to rule Cuba?
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Feb 19, 2008, 04:42

Expat Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.

A Miami Herald story by Pablo Bacheletat www.miami.com

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has long referred to his brother Raúl as his designated successor, and ''temporarily'' ceded power to the defense minister when he got sick in 2006. But there are others considered possible candidates to succeed Castro:

CARLOS LAGE, 56

Cuba's vice president is considered a leading candidate to succeed Fidel Castro as president if the ailing leader decides he does not want to be re-elected.

A pediatrician who once served on a medical mission to Ethiopia, Lage is considered a pragmatic technocrat, who would be acceptable to the country's powerful factions, including the armed forces and old-time Communist Party members.

He has been the island's economic czar since the early 1990s, overseeing a series of capitalist-styled reforms while echoing Castro's unease with the what the reforms might unleash. He has warned that corruption ``is very serious, however isolated it may be, because socialism is built on morality.''

For a while, he kept a low profile as Castro backtracked on reforms of the 1990s. But when Castro fell sick in 2006, he was placed in charge of energy and finance.

He is a member of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo since 1991 and one of the younger members of Fidel's inner circle. Under Lage's watch, Cuba's energy crunch has eased somewhat in recent months.

Lage has taken a much more public role under Raúl Castro, often representing the country at international gatherings and especially in relations with Venezuela, now Cuba's biggest source of foreign subsidies.

But he has continued, in public at least, to warn of capitalism's failings.

''We always knew the biggest challenge of socialism is to instill in young people a communist conscience and rejection of capitalism, without having lived in it, without having seen the moral damage it produces,'' he said in April last year.

Cuba's communist system, he added, was ``not as ideal as the one we wished for, or achieved years ago.''

Lage's two sons are active in Cuba's youth movements.

RICARDO ALARCON, 70

Urbane and fluent in English, he s one of Cuba's most prominent politicians and is often interviewed by foreign media. He served as Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations and foreign minister for more than 20 years before becoming president of the National Assembly in 1993.

His high visibility makes him a natural candidate as Castro's successor, though he's also considered too old. A recently leaked video showed Alarcón awkwardly fielding tough questions from university students.

FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE, 42

The foreign minister, an electrical engineer by training, is one of the youngest members of the Cuban leadership and might be favored in a succession if there's a drive for a generational change.

But many perceive Perez Roque as too close to Castro to oversee real change. He was Castro's chief of staff for eight years before becoming foreign minister in 1999, and is considered a member of the hardline faction known as the Taliban.

RAMIRO VALDES, 75

One of the historical figures of the Cuban revolution, he fought in the assault on the Moncada barracks in 1953 and has served as interior minister and vice-prime minister. He has been minister of communications since 2006.

Considered a hardliner, Valdés in public has backed the hints of reforms encouraged by interim Cuban leader Raúl Castro. But his clashes with Raúl in the first half of the 1980s led to his dismissal as interior minister in 1985.

Some experts view him as too powerful for Raúl's liking, and too old for those who want a generational change.

ESTEBAN LAZO, 64

Born from a poor peasant family, Lazo is one of the few Afro Cubans to hold senior government posts. He is a member of the National Assembly, the Council of Ministers and the Political Buro of the Cuban Communist Party.

Castro tapped Lazo to oversee Cuba's education system after the got sick in 2006, and his racial and socio-economic background might make him an attractive candidate for the presidency. But his experience has been most in the Cuban bureaucracy instead of the front lines of politics.

Pablo Bachelet is The Miami Herald's Washington correspondent.

Expat Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.