Brother act: in the year since Fidel Castro fell ill, Cuba has been in limbo. His brother, Raul, is acting President, but Fidel is still making his presence felt.

• Author: McKinley, Jr., James C.
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

1 Cuba's economic collapse is evident in the decrepit neighborhoods of Havana.

2 Rater Castro has been acting President for more than a year.

3 Fide| Castro, in a photo released in August 2006, a month after he fell ill and temporarily handed power to his brother

4 Cubans at a speech by Raul Castro on a national holiday in July

E Fidel Castro as a young revolutionary reader in 1959, just before his forces took control of the capital, Havana, and began his half-century rule of Cuba

On July 26, 2006, Cuba's longtime leader Fidel Castro gave two long public speeches to commemorate a national holiday. It was the last time he was seen in public. That night, he fell ill and handed power to his younger brother Raul--supposedly on a temporary basis. Since then, Cubans have lived under two masters: the ailing elder Castro, now 81, and his younger brother, Raul, 76, the longtime defense minister. That has left Cuba in limbo, with neither brother fully in control of the one-party Socialist state.

"The question is why haven't there been more dramatic changes," says Manuel Cuesta Morua, a moderate opposition leader. "The answer is Fidel Castro continues to govern."

Since the Communist Party has yet to officially replace Fidel as the head of state, his presence in the wings and his towering history here continue to exert a strong influence. That has made it difficult, experts say, for Raul to shake up the island's centralized Soviet-style economy, though some of Raul's recent remarks indicate he would like to.

CASTRO & THE U.S.

Cuba--an island nation of 11 million people, just 90 miles from Florida--has been under Fide] Castro's iron-fisted control since 1959, when he overthrew Cuba's previous dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

In 1961, Castro allied Cuba with the Soviet Union, prompting Washington to impose a trade embargo (which is still in effect), and beginning five decades of rocky relations with the United States.

In April 1961, Cuban exiles backed by the U.S. landed at the Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Castro. In 1962, Soviet nuclear missiles capable of reaching the U.S. were deployed in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, taking the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. (After 13 tense days for President John E Kennedy and the nation, the Soviets backed down and the missiles were removed.)

Soviet aid kept Cuba's economy afloat until the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba's...