Cuba's military rehearses for parade

Cuba's military rehearses for parade

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Mon Nov 20, 6:12 PM ET

HAVANA - Fighter jets zoomed overhead and armed vehicles rolled through
the Plaza of the Revolution Monday as Cuba's military rehearsed for a
parade marking the 50th anniversary of a guerrilla war that brought
Fidel Castro to power.

The Dec. 2 military parade will be the first in Havana in a decade and
will mark the anniversary of the 1956 landing of a yacht that carried
ailing Cuban leader and his armed band to Cuba to launch their guerrilla
war.

The event will also salute Castro, who asked that celebrations for his
80th birthday on Aug. 13 be delayed so he could recover from intestinal
surgery that prompted him to step aside temporarily in July. Castro's
brother, 75-year-old Defense Minister Raul Castro, has been acting
president since then.

During Monday's rehearsal, uniformed soldiers on foot and horseback
practiced their steps across the broad plaza.

Olive-green armored vehicles and artillery on wheels were transported to
the site, as well as a replica of the yacht named Granma, which carried
the Castro brothers and other rebels from Mexico, landing on Cuban
shores on Dec. 2, 1956. The date is considered the founding of communist
Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The revolution culminated in the ouster of Fulgencio Batista's
government and Castro's rise to power in 1959.

There has been no official word on whether Castro will attend the parade
or a series of events beforehand planned for his birthday.

The nature of Castro's ailment and surgery has been treated as a state
secret and he has not been seen in public since the July 31 announcement
of his illness, although officials have occasionally released
photographs and videos of him during his recovery.

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