CUBA:As one of history's longest-serving political understudies, Raul Castro often struggled to persuade his all-powerful brother Fidel to open Cuba's moribund economy to more foreign investment.
But on Thursday, with Fidel still hidden from public view after stomach surgery last July and his prospects of returning to power uncertain, the younger brother asserted his desire to push Cuba in a new direction.
Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the 54th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Raul Castro declared that Cuba was considering opening itself further to foreign investment, allowing business partners to provide the financially strapped nation with "capital, technology or markets".
The younger Castro's remarks, coupled with his unusual admission that the Cuban government needs to pay its vast cadres of state-employed workers more to cover basic needs, amounted to the clearest indication yet of how he might lead this island nation.
Castro, who was named interim president last July 31st, vowed to partner only with "serious entrepreneurs, upon well-defined legal bases".
Wearing his trademark tinted glasses and military uniform, Castro (76), struck distinctly capitalist notes before tens of thousands of flag-waving Communist Party loyalists in this central Cuban city, set amid cattle ranches 350 miles east of Havana.
But he also was careful to appeal to hard-line party leaders, saying that any new business deals must "preserve the role of the state and the predominance of socialist property" and that the government would be "careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past, (which) owed to naivete or our ignorance about these partnerships".
"These statements seem to be innovative, to be carrying them toward new initiatives," Wayne Smith, an analyst at the Centre for International Policy and a former chief of the US interests section in Havana, said in an interview from his Washington office. "The Cuban people, who have been waiting for some indication that there is going to be a change, will really welcome this."
Fidel Castro's absence from the commemoration, an annual event honouring the quixotic attack on the Moncada Barracks that launched Cuba's revolution, added to the intrigue surrounding one of the most singular political figures of the 20th century. Thursday marked one year since Castro's last public appearances.
Five days after Fidel Castro's speeches last July, the Cuban government made the startling announcement that he had undergone emergency surgery and was relinquishing power for the first time to his brother.
In recent months, Fidel, who turns 81 next month, has seemed more active, receiving foreign dignitaries and writing more than two dozen sharply-worded editorials. He has appeared weak and frail in several recorded television segments, although his supporters, most notably Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, have insisted for months that he is improving.
Raul Castro, who made a low-key entrance on Thursday while the audience was distracted by a dance troupe, acknowledged that "these have truly been very difficult months".
But, he said, there has been "a diametrically different impact to that expected by our enemies, who were wishing for chaos to entrench and for Cuban socialism to collapse". The crowd formed a sea of red as participants streamed away from the event in Camaguey's Plaza de la Revolucion Agramonte, many chanting "Viva Fidel".
"It would have been great to see him today," Angel Morel (56), a Camaguey dairy manager, said after the speech. "But the commander in chief is sick, and he needs time to recover."
Although people here seem to have accepted Raul Castro's legitimacy, his brother's absence has been unsettling to Cubans, who had grown accustomed to his four-hour speeches and impromptu neighbourhood visits.
It is almost certain that Fidel Castro continues to wield great influence, but it is equally clear that Cubans are preparing themselves emotionally for life without him. In some respects, this past year has unspooled like a dry run for the post-Fidel Castro era and for his certain evolution into a historic symbol, à la Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the revolutionary figure whose legend has grown dramatically in the decades since his death.
"Che is more active now than he ever was," renowned Cuban poet Pablo Armando Fernández said in an interview. "Fidel will always live in the minds of Cubans. He is electric - like a messiah."
Fidel Castro is widely considered to have been an impediment to efforts by his brother and other political figures to bring more businesses to Cuba, where hundreds of miles of spectacular coastline are a developer's dream.
Cuba's economy finally opened in the 1990s, after the economic crisis provoked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had heavily subsidised the brothers' regime. Faced with a starving populace that was grilling banana peels and eating house cats to survive, Fidel Castro relented, allowing tourism businesses, which are administered by generals under Raul Castro's command.
The Spanish hotel giant Sol Melia built beach resorts and Havana hotels, while other European and Canadian firms also established footholds.
Top-line Havana hotel rooms now go for $250 a night or more in a city where workers are paid about $30 a month. US companies are prohibited from doing business in Cuba because of a four-decade-long embargo.
Foreign investment plateaued as Cuba's economy improved early this century. Raul Castro, friends say, was unable to persuade his brother to further open the economy.
But Thursday's remarks could signal that Raul Castro has consolidated power enough to continue advancing his agenda. When it came time to say goodbye, Raul Castro, a plodding speaker with none of his brother's rhetorical flourishes, returned to Cuba's one sure applause line: "Long live the revolution! Long live Fidel!" - (LA Times- Washington Post service)