Over the past half-century, Fidel and Raul Castro have ensured ”” through exile, purges and execution ”” that no political figure or generation has emerged as their obvious successors. Time and again, the brothers have stacked the ruling Cuban Communist Party with gray hard-liners nearly as old as they are, determined to preserve their revolutionary legacy.
Given this reality, post-Castro Cuba will need someone trusted by all segments of society to help shepherd this nation into a new era, without bloodshed or upheaval. Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, archbishop of Havana, is that man. The son of a sugar mill worker, Ortega is uniquely equipped to fill any power vacuum.
Oh come on, seriously???!!! Despite the populous of Latin American countries being largely RC, there is bitterness there, too. RC leaders and the church too often propped up tyrants and allowed themselves to be used to keep the people in line, for the benefit and protection of the church and rigid control of the state. The young people don’t know but the old-timers surely remember and I’m sure some would sound alarm. Of course, “liberation theology” wasn’t much of an improvement.
Church politics and secular politics do not mix well.