Castro meeting with international guests, may be shifting reigns
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
KATHERINE SHRADER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Cuban President Fidel Castro, ailing and out of sight, has
been meeting with a trickle of international guests in recent months, a
U.S. government official said Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitive situation with Cuba, declined to say with whom Castro was
meeting. But the meetings, generally with visitors from Latin America,
suggest he may be setting the stage for a transition of power to protect
the government he has built over four decades.
In a review of global threats last week, National Intelligence Director
John Negroponte said that Castro and his brother, Raul, who has taken
over as Cuba's temporary leader, are trying to create a "soft landing"
during the transfer of control.
"From the point of the United States policy, we don't want to see that
happen," Negroponte said.
Negroponte also said Castro's days "seem to be numbered," a view
supported Tuesday by the U.S. government official. That official said
U.S. intelligence believes that Castro is likely to die within a month
or two, although analysts don't yet know the precise nature of his illness.
That assessment narrowed the life-expectancy estimate of U.S.
intelligence agencies, which previously had said Castro was not expected
to make it through the end of this year.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Tuesday that Castro has had at
least three failed operations and is suffering complications from an
intestinal infection, leaving him with a "grave prognosis."
The report gave rare details about his medical treatment, citing two
unidentified sources from Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital, which
employs surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido. An expert in the digestive
system, Sabrido flew to Cuba in December to treat Castro and returned
insisting that the 80-year-old was recovering slowly from a serious
operation.
One of the journalists who wrote the article said that Sabrido was not
one of the two sources. The journalist, Oriol Guell, said the sources
were both doctors at the hospital, but he declined to identify them.
A Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the El Pais report was false. "If anyone
has to talk about Castro's illness, it's Havana," the diplomat said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because of official policy.
U.S. officials will not disclose how they glean clues to Castro's
health. But American spy agencies employ physicians who study images,
public statements and other information coming out of Cuba and other
countries.
Some intelligence officials believe Castro is suffering from
diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine,
especially in people over 60. Others believe that Castro has cancer of
the stomach, the colon or perhaps the pancreas.
Yet Cuban officials told a delegation of U.S. lawmakers visiting last
month that Castro did not have cancer, and the Spanish doctor who came
to check on him said the same.
Negroponte said last week it is an open question whether Castro's death
could trigger a popular demand for democratic change.
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