Cubans brace for life without Castro

Posted on Wed, Aug. 16, 2006

CUBA
Cubans brace for life without Castro
While Castro's illness is still shrouded in mystery, Cubans are starting
to realize their country will never be the same.
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA - The government video of a weakened Fidel Castro convalescing in
bed brought an undeniable truth home to Cubans on Tuesday: Neither he
nor Cuba will ever be the same.

The images released Monday night of Cuba's 80-year-old ''unconquerable
commander in chief'' reassured anxious Cubans that he was alive,
comfortable and recovering after surgery.

But the post-surgery photographs and video also are helping Cubans
''gradually grow accustomed to'' the idea of a Cuba without their
''Maximum Leader'' at the helm, according to historian Manuel
Cuesta-Morua, a government opponent.

''The video gives a positive idea, that he is recovering,'' said
Cuesta-Morua, who describes himself as a social democrat who wants more
civil liberties in Cuba. ``At the same time, it gives me the impression
that he doesn't have the ability to return to his duties.''

With the details of Castro's illness being treated as a ''state
secret,'' Cubans and the world are in the dark about how sick he really
is, what ails him, and what kind of surgery he had two weeks ago before
announcing July 31 he was temporarily ceding power to his younger
brother Raúl.

Cubans have remained calm while awaiting further word from the Communist
Party, which has called on them to remain faithful to their leader and
his revolution.

''Get well, Comandante,'' Rolando Alfonso Borges, a Communist Party
Central Committee member wrote Tuesday in Granma, the party's newspaper.
``You know that our people are the guarantor, that the Revolution came
to stay, that we would defend it with blood and fingernails if necessary.''

But Cubans have never before seen Castro as fragile as he looked Monday
night on the 10-minute video broadcast on state television, which showed
him receiving an 80th birthday visit Sunday from his brother Raúl and
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The man who ruled Cuba for 47 years didn't once lift his head from the
adjustable bed, its back propped at an angle. His long fingers rested in
the hand of Chávez, who treated him with the affection of a son for his
father.

Previously, Castro's most vulnerable moment came during an accidental
fall in October 2004 that shattered his left kneecap and broke his right
arm. Cubans were stunned to see him shortly afterward in a wheelchair,
then more astonished a few weeks later when he began walking again.

It was not entirely clear why the Cuban government, which has taken
great pains over the years to protect Castro's physically invincible
image, allowed him to be seen sick this time.

But the need to prove to Cubans and the world that Castro was still
alive, conscious and coherent after two weeks without any information
about his condition may have prevailed.

Seeing Castro convalescing elicited profound feelings of sympathy and
even affection among many Cubans who seem to consider him part of their
family, even if they don't always agree with him.

''We were so sad without knowing anything for so long'' about Castro's
condition, said Coralina Bauta, 59, who works in Old Havana. ``But this
made me happy.''

''He looks sick, I think his recovery is going to take [a] while,''
43-year-old driver Manuel González said Tuesday. ``He needs a lot of
recovery time.''

http://origin.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/15283319.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_americas