Cuba Libre

Cuba Libre Is there really another Castro in Cuba's future? After Fidel The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader by Brian Latell Palgrave Macmillan, 288 pp., $24.95

In early 2002, as U.S. military officials prepped their base at Guantánamo Bay for the arrival of captured al Qaeda fighters, the Cuban defense minister made a startling announcement: Should any of the detainees escape into Cuban territory, they would be promptly returned to Gitmo. This from a regime that had spent the previous four decades offering safe haven and support to a sundry gaggle of terrorists and anti-American radicals, including one man (Victor Manuel Gerena) currently on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

The Cuban military chief also spoke with unusual authority: Not only was he Fidel Castro's brother, he was also his designated successor. RaUl Castro, who became head of the armed forces in 1959, has long been a mystery to foreign journalists and Cuba watchers. Yet according to former CIA officer Brian Latell, Raúl has been "indispensable" to Cuban communism. As an erstwhile Cuban intelligence agent told him, "If the Cuban Revolution can be considered an ongoing drama, then Fidel must be thought of as its director and Raul its producer."

That arrangement changed this summer, when Fidel Castro "temporarily" relinquished power to his brother while undergoing treatment for intestinal bleeding. (That was the official word, anyway.) Raúl Castro's public debut as eljefe came on August 13, Fidel's 80th birthday, when he greeted Venezuela's Hugo Chávez in Havana. Cuban television aired footage of the two men chumming around in a hospital room with Fidel, who released a statement warning Cubans to gird for adverse news about his health.

As the past five decades have taught us, prognosticating about Fidel Castro's expiration date can be a risky business. But it seems likely that a transition has gradually begun, with 75-yearold Raúl at the helm. And that makes this book-the first ever Raúl Castro biography-essential reading.

Latell was uniquely positioned to write it. He arrived at the CIA's Cuba desk in 1964, and later served as national intelligence officer for Latin America. After Fidel represents a lifetime of studying the Castros. When it was first published last fall, the book spurred some chatter among...