• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Government tight-lipped over Castro

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 August 2006, 15:14 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category