Castro no-show raises health questions
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA --
Fidel Castro was a no-show on May Day, missing his third straight major
public event and disappointing hundreds of thousands of marchers who
were forced to settle for an appearance by his stodgy younger brother
and a message in the form of a wandering essay about ethanol.
Top officials in Cuba and throughout the region have long insisted that
the island's "maximum leader" is recuperating from emergency intestinal
surgery, and has even reassumed some of the duties he left when he
temporally stepped aside on July 31.
But nine months and counting without a public appearance has some
wondering whether repeated assurances that Castro's health is improving
are aimed more at reassuring the 80-year-old patient and his supporters
than accurately depicting his condition.
And, even if Castro is no longer at death's door, will he ever be well
enough to be seen in public again - much less be up to running a country?
"We are still where we were," said Wayne Smith, the former head of the
American mission in Havana. "They say his recovery is satisfactory. But
all these months later he cannot even make an appearance on May Day."
Smith said that it "now seems more unlikely than before that he will
fully resume the presidency."
"And the more time that passes, the more unlikely it seems," he added.
Tuesday marked just the third time since leading the Cuban revolution in
January 1959 that Castro missed his country's sweeping International
Workers' Day festivities, where a sea of marchers in red and white
T-shirts flooded Havana's Revolution Plaza.
But it was also the third big event Castro has missed since last summer,
when he announced his illness and ceded power to a caretaker government
led by his brother Raul, the 75-year-old defense minister.
It was Raul who presided over the Nonaligned Summit in September and a
major military parade - that doubled as a late celebration of Fidel's
80th birthday - in December.
Wearing his typical olive-green uniform, the younger Castro was the
reluctant center of attention again Tuesday, standing stiffly and
smiling on a platform beneath a towering statute of Cuban independent
leader Jose Marti.
He occasionally waved as marchers streamed past, clutching plastic Cuban
flags, portraits of both Castro brothers and banners denouncing U.S.
"imperialism." They protested the recent decision to free on bond
anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles, pending his trial on U.S.
immigration charges. Havana accuses the Cuban-born Posada of
orchestrating a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people - a charge
he denies.
Signs and banners everywhere Tuesday demanded "Prison for the
Executioner" and accused the U.S. government of a double standard on
terrorism in the Posada case.
Marchers also clamored for the release of five Cuban spies imprisoned in
the U.S. for being unregistered foreign agents, calling them heroes who
were merely protecting their country from violent exile groups.
Cuba's top union leader Salvador Valdes signaled at the start of
Tuesday's festivities that Castro wasn't coming.
"A speedy recovery and lots of health, dear Fidel," Valdes said.
Castro has looked on his way to recovery - appearing stronger in recent
photos and videos released by government news outlets - and his close
friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said Sunday that he
was "back in charge."
But Castro released a rambling and seemingly off-topic statement Monday
night, his fourth in recent weeks which laid into a U.S. plan to use
food crops to produce ethanol for American cars. He spent more words
dismissing a perceived growing feud between himself and the leftist
government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva than May Day.
Although Cuban life is little changed under Raul, loyalists missed the
energy Fidel brought to events like May Day.
"Everyone wanted to see him, but it's good that he recovers completely.
Now the revolution is continuing with Raul," said 68-year-old hotel
worker Victor Reyes, who was among the marchers.
Phil Peters, Cuba specialist for the Lexington Institute, a
Washington-area think tank, said Castro could still make a public
appearance soon - but one that doesn't revolve around an hours-long
parade in the hot morning sun.
"My guess is that, given how long it has been, that his first appearance
would be indoors," Peters said.
Whether Castro appears soon in public or not, the question seems to be
less pressing for some Cubans than it once was - as the idea of major
events without their former leader sinks in further.
"He is not here at the Plaza," worker Gloria Neme said Tuesday, "but
he's present here in our hearts."
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