Government tight-lipped over Castro

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba’s government stayed tight-lipped
over ailing leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday, keeping nervous
Cubans waiting for fresh word on his condition and for the
brother to whom he handed power to appear in public.

State-run media repeated a message from the previous night
quoting the 79-year-old president, who stepped aside
temporarily on Monday, saying his health was stable but that a
verdict on his recovery from stomach surgery would take “many
days.”

There was a small increase in police presence in poorer
parts of Havana and communist neighborhood groups said that
“rapid response groups” used to put down riots in the past had
been activated.

Some Cubans with relatives in the security forces said
military and other uniformed personnel had been mobilized in
barracks and police stations as a precaution.

“Our guns are oiled,” said one neighborhood organizer,
Rolando Gomez, 75, in Havana’s decaying downtown. The
committees are usually unarmed.

“We’re putting the people’s war into practice,” he said.

Castro has not been seen in public since July 26 and the
scant information about his condition has sparked rumors among
exiles in the United States that he could be dead or merely
running a “dress rehearsal” for his succession.

His defense minister brother Raul, 75, has not appeared in
public since Castro handed him the reins of the ruling
Communist Party, the post of commander in chief of the armed
forces and president of the executive council of state.

Castro’s latest statement said he could give few details on
his health due to the threat to Cuba from the U.S. “empire.”

“The most I can say is that the situation will remain
stable for many days before a verdict can be given,” said the
message from Castro, which was first read out on state
television late on Tuesday.

Residents of the beautiful but crumbling capital Havana
went about their business normally. But many said they were
nervous about the possibility Fidel’s rule might end after 47
years which began when his bearded revolutionaries swept down
from the Sierra Maestra hills.

While opinion can be hard to gauge in this
tightly-controlled society, many people said they wanted Raul
Castro to make a public appearance. The defense minister is
seen as competent although some foreign analysts doubt he has
the charisma to hold the system together.

“We don’t know what’s going on. We’re waiting for Raul to
speak,” said Vilma Gutierrez, a mother of three who works in a
ramshackle state-owned shop selling subsidized potatoes and
bananas. Her part of town saw riots in 1994 during the economic
crisis set off by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Putting a finger to her lips, she said: “People are keeping
their mouths shut. They don’t know what’s going to happen.”

SMOOTH TRANSITION

So far, the transition has appeared smooth and well
planned. The island’s isolated dissident community has done
little, although it has been promised support by the United
States.

Washington has maintained an economic embargo on the island
since 1962 and tried to kill Castro several times, once with a
poisoned cigar.

“People are on tenterhooks. They’re confused,” said a book
seller in central Havana, who asked not to be named.

“There are people who want things to turn out well, and
there are many more who don’t want things to turn out well, but
they don’t say it,” he said, dismissing government accounts of
a possible U.S. invasion as “folklore.”

After raucous celebrations by Cuban-Americans in Florida
following news of Castro’s illness, some exiles hoping for a
quick communist collapse were becoming impatient.

Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, said
the U.S. government had activated plans to thwart his hopes of
sailing for the island in a flotilla of boats.

“The proclamation is to prevent the flotillas from entering
Cuban waters as it is our right to do as Cubans,” he said.

The White House, which has said it will not relax its
embargo even if Raul takes over permanently, urged exiles not
to try to cross the narrow straits and said Cubans should not
leave the island either.

“This is not a time for people to try to be getting into
the water and going either way,” White House spokesman Tony
Snow said.