PENÚLTIMOSDÍAS: “The Latell Report, October 2011: Filling Raul's Boots” (Inglés)

The strongest and most essential institution in Raul’s Castro’s government has been without a leader since September 3 when three star general Julio Casas died unexpectedly. Nearly seven weeks later the vacancy in the revolutionary armed forces ministry suggests that the leadership is in a quandary about who should fill it.
Beginning in October 1959 when Raul assumed command of the military, he and Casas were its only chiefs. The younger Castro reigned until February 2008, later boasting in a remarkable flourish during an interview that he had been the longest serving defense minister in human history. His faithful crony Casas, who fought with him in the late 1950s guerrilla struggle, succeeded as minister when Raul officially took over the presidency.
But now Raul must elevate another man to the only job in Cuba where viable challenges to his supremacy could originate. There have been just two known instances of severe disenchantment in the armed forces, and both were dealt with by the Castro brothers with cruelty and finality. In late 1959 the courageous Huber Matos, one of the most respected veterans of the insurgency, was imprisoned on Fidel’s orders by a kangaroo court. Thirty years later, during the summer of crisis in the Soviet bloc, General Arnaldo Ochoa, then the most accomplished and popular military commander, was executed on trumped up charges. In both cases, the offenders had lost confidence in the Castros’ dictatorship and sought liberalizing change.