Sitting in the UN General Assembly and watching Fidel Castro speak was like being in the theater. Whether you agreed with what he said or even understood Spanish, it was opera. The flashing camera bulbs erupted at every gesture of performing arms, hands and fingers. Cuba has been about one man as much as it has about ideology. When ideology proved hollow, that man filled the vacuum with charisma. Other Latin American leaders, some with even greater natural resources at their disposal, as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, have tried to follow the headliner that Fidel Castro has been – but the audience is left deflated and Venezuela disappointed. Evo Morales has also offered his own rendering of the South American revolutionary, and at least he has avoided the direct comparison by not attempting the role of Don Giovanni. (Chavez rendition of Simon Bolivar is particularly lacking). Sharing space and moment with a few hundred other diplomats watching Fidel speak to the UN in 1995, I can only imagine one other kin to Fidel’s charisma, and it is not Raul. Chez Guerra is dead and the revolution of charisma is Latin America is being replaced by the evolution of democracy, even in Venezuela and Cuba sooner or later. Photos from UN Photo (1979, 1995 & 2000) By Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey

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