*Back in March, geopolitical observers were shocked when two prominent Cuban officials, Vice President and Executive Secretary of the Council of Ministers Carlos Lage, 57, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, 43, were summarily ousted from power. These were not your basic high-ranked officials, but consummate insiders and high-profile, next-generation faces of Cuba’s post-Castro Brothers future.
Word was they had been seduced by the “honey of power.” Those euphemistic words belonged to former President Fidel Castro.
Well, it could be a lot more serious than “honey of power” seduction, according to El Nuevo Herald. The Spanish-language sister publication of the Miami Herald reports that Cubans “associated with” Lage and Perez Roque will go on trial next year on charges that could include “espionage and the disclosure of state secrets” involving the Spanish intelligence service.
Reportedly, Cuban Prosecutor General Juan Escalona Reguera will personally present the government’s case. The retired army general is considered a quintessential hard-liner.
*So much for the principle, at least editorially, of Americans’ freedom to travel to Cuba. The Miami Herald has long been pro embargo — but anti travel-ban. The rationale for the latter has been the consistent belief in the value of “people-to-people contacts.”
Except, it now appears, during turbulent economic times.
The Herald is now proffering more pragmatic advice to Washington. “The question members of Congress should ask now is whether this is the right time to be opening up all travel to Cuba – in the midst of a recession where tourist meccas from Miami to Las Vegas are hurting with empty hotel rooms.”