Havana carefully did not tell the Cuban people that Fidel Castro was giving up one of his most important posts. The official announcement last week merely stated that the all-powerful National Agrarian Reform Institute, which runs Cuba's communized agriculture, was getting a new boss. He is Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, a longtime Communist economic theoretician and, next to Secretary-General Bias Roca, top man in the party's hierarchy.
The shift marked the first time that Fidel Castro, oft-proclaimed "maximum leader," has been removed from a position of power, and it made clearer still what has been apparent for months.
Though Castro continues to do...