Cuba with another Castro at the helm

President Raul Castro is pictured during a ceremony in Cuba last July.

It was a day for the history books: El Comandante was formally replaced as Cuban president by his younger brother Raúl late last month, ending nearly a half century in charge.

And yet, February 24 didn’t seem momentous in the narrow lanes of central Havana. It was bustling and hot, with music drifting out of doorways and tourists taking in crumbling colonial baroque architecture, antique cars and the ubiquitous image of Che Guevara.

“Those are the same questions I heard over and over again (from reporters around the world) – ‘What’s it like?’ ‘What are people saying?’” says Dalhousie professor John Kirk, who happened to be on the Caribbean island as the political baton was handed from one brother to another and his house-sitter back in Halifax directed calls to his Havana hotel. Taking advantage of reading week, Dr. Kirk was visiting his daughter Emily, a third-year International Development Studies student on a three-month study-abroad term at the University of Havana.

“It was absolute normalcy. There was nothing different at all.”

Besides visiting his daughter, Dr. Kirk was in Cuba for the launch of the Spanish edition of his book, Canada-Cuba Relations: The Other Good Neighbor Policy (Sesenta años de relaciones bilaterales Canadá-Cuba), co-authored with Peter McKenna, and to act as interpreter and facilitator for a delegation of medical personnel from Halifax.

Though it was the end of an era, the change at the head of the ruling Communist party appeared to have unfolded in the manner in which ailing 81-year-old Fidel Castro hoped when he announced his intention to leave — "devoid of all drama" — on the website of Cuba’s Communist party newspaper Granma.

The occasion says a lot about Raúl, too, says Dr. Kirk. Low-key and dependable, he’s been efficiently handling “this new phase in the revolution” for the past 19 months, further refining the model imposed by Fidel in 1959.

A noted pragmatist, 76-year-old Raúl pledged to take steps to fix Cuba’s economy by cutting red tape and allowing greater economic freedom. During his inaugural speech, he said he would continue to consult his brother on all major decisions.

"Fidel is Fidel. There is only one commander of this revolution. He is irreplaceable," he told the Cuba’s National Assembly in his 45-minute inaugural speech.

Since named interim president, Raúl has received more than one million suggestions for change from the Cuban people. He’s released 80 political prisoners, turned over land from state farms and distributed it to small farmers, and legalized the under-the-table income of employees who work for foreign companies. He’s also offered the olive branch to the United States three times and been rebuffed.

He said he’ll make it easier for Cubans to travel abroad, increase the consumer goods they can buy and give the media greater freedom. During his first week at the helm, he met with the Vatican's No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

"The stability is very clear to anyone who has traveled through Cuba. It’s business as usual with or without Fidel," says Dr. Kirk.

A Latin-American expert who has written several books on Cuban international relations, history and culture, Dr. Kirk hasn’t met Raúl – yet. He encountered Fidel on two occasions in 1994 and 1996 while traveling with former Nova Scotia Premier John Savage. He also played host to Fidel’s brother Ramón, who visited Halifax for a week in 1989.