U.S. Increases TV Transmissions to Cuba

U.S. Increases TV Transmissions to Cuba
By VANESSA ARRINGTON , 08.08.2006, 09:17 AM

Cuba's allies urged the United States not to interfere with the
communist country during Fidel Castro's absence from power, while the
U.S. increased its television transmissions to the island and encouraged
anti-Castro activists to push for change.

Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon warned that the United States
would face "hell" if it meddled with the Caribbean island.

"We demand that the government of the United States respect Cuba's
sovereignty," read a letter from 400 leftist intellectuals and human
rights activists published Tuesday in Cuba's state-run newspapers. "We
must prevent a new aggression at all costs."

U.S. officials have repeatedly said they will not invade Cuba, and that
they wish only to see democracy on the island.

"Our desire is for the Cuban people to choose their own form of
government," U.S. President George W. Bush said from his ranch in
Crawford, Texas.

Yet many of those fearing an attack point to Iraq and Afghanistan - and
the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

Any invasion now would "become a hell for them from the first day,"
Alarcon said Monday.

"We will guarantee them total failure once again," he said in an
interview from Havana with the Venezuela-based television station
Telesur, in an apparent reference to the Bay of Pigs attack.

Castro, who turns 80 on Sunday, is said to be recovering from intestinal
bleeding that forced him to temporarily cede power a week ago to his
younger brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro.

Neither of the brothers have made public appearances since.

The Communist Youth newspaper on Tuesday published a series of letters
to Castro from children and teenagers across the country.

"We care about you so much, and since the moment of this sad news
haven't stopped thinking about you," wrote Rina Forment, a 10-year-old
in the eastern city of Santiago.

No details on Castro's specific condition or what surgical procedure he
underwent have been provided, with officials simply saying the Cuban
leader's health is rapidly improving and that he'll be back to work soon.

Castro "continues to be coming along favorably and we are sure that he
will recover," said Vice President Carlos Lage, who was in Bogota for
the inauguration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

"He himself has said that in a few weeks he will be back at work again,"
said Lage, adding that Cuba was operating normally in the leader's absence.

Bush said the United States was in the dark about Castro's true health
condition.

"The only thing I know is what has been speculated, and this is that, on
the one hand, he is very ill and, on the other hand, he is going to be
coming out of hospital," Bush said.

The United States planned to increase the television transmissions of
its Miami-based TV Marti station to Cuba from one afternoon a week to six.

Congress approved $10 million in its 2006 budget to develop airborne TV
broadcasting to counter the Cuban government's mostly successful efforts
to jam the transmission. A new private plane to be used for the
transmissions was unveiled on Saturday.

Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Laura Wides-Munoz
in Miami, Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, and Ian James in Caracas,
Venezuela, contributed to this report.

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