Cuba's foreign minister tells Castro admirers that communist system will survive

Cuba's foreign minister tells Castro admirers that communist system will
survive
The Associated Press
Published: November 30, 2006

HAVANA: The unity of the Cuban people will guarantee the island's
communist system remains after its aging leaders are gone, Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Thursday amid 80th birthday
celebrations for ailing President Fidel Castro.

"The enemies of the Cuban revolution ... are counting the minutes,
waiting and hoping for Fidel's death," Perez Roque told hundreds of
foreign supporters who traveled here to belatedly fete Castro, whose
birthday was Aug. 13.

Castro announced July 31 that he had undergone intestinal surgery and
was temporarily ceding power to his brother Defense Minister Raul
Castro. He asked that his birthday festivities be postponed to Dec. 2 to
coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Cuba's
Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The bearded guerrilla leader has not appeared in public since then and
his medical condition remains a state secret, sparking continual
speculation about his health.
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The ailing leader's enemies "don't understand that ... Fidel is the
people and that Fidel is, in the end, every man and woman in the world
who is willing to struggle because a better world is possible," said
Perez Roque,

"Convalescing, recovering and returning to combat, (Castro) will deliver
a new defeat to those enemies wallowing in hate and mediocrity," said
the foreign minister, who previously served for years as the leader's
personal secretary.

"We promise that we will continue struggling for the ideas and the
dreams that Fidel has dedicated his life to," Perez Roque added. "When
he and the men of his generation are no longer with us, we have the
conviction that our people will have made those ideas and principles
theirs for ever."

Perez Roque's words echoed those pronounced earlier in the day at a
military review in eastern Cuba by Communications Minister Ramiro
Valdes, a key rebel commander during the nation's 1959 revolution.

Since Castro stepped aside, "our people have been Fidel, an invincible
Fidel," Valdes told several hundred thousand people at the event in
Santiago, 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Havana.

The gathering was part of five days of events this week to celebrate
Castro's birthday and mark the armed forces anniversary. Festivities
culminate Saturday with a massive military parade in Havana, featuring
tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and Soviet-made fighter jets.

In Santiago, Valdes called on government loyalists to unite behind Raul
Castro in the face of unspecified new "harassment" from the United
States. Raul Castro, however, was not at the event.

Many Cubans have had high expectations for an appearance by Fidel Castro
during the week's events, but he did not show up Tuesday night for a
gala event with visiting admirers.

Cuban officials insist Castro is recovering, but U.S. officials say they
believe he suffers from some kind of inoperable cancer and won't live
through 2007.

More foreign luminaries traveled Thursday to Cuba for the festivities,
with Haitian President Rene Preval arriving with his wife.

Of Castro, the Haitian leader said, "I want to give him a hug."

Bolivian President Evo Morales and Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel
Ortega were also expected.

More than 1,000 foreign admirers were already in town for a three-day
academic forum dedicated to Castro that began Wednesday. They included
Nicaraguan politician Tomas Borge, Argentine human rights activist Hebe
de Bonafini and a host of writers and artists.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/01/news/CB_GEN_Cuba_Castro.php