CUBA
Cubans seem resigned to life without Castro
While the Cuban government maintains leader Fidel Castro is recovering,
on the streets of Havana there already is talk of a new era.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
After nearly half a year of Fidel Castro sidelined by illness and
government stalwarts insisting that he will make a comeback, a new
feeling has swept over Cuba: acceptance.
''We know he's human just like all of us,'' said José, a 63-year-old
Havana teacher. ``Life ends for all of us one day.''
The Cuban government maintains that Castro is recovering. A U.S.
congressional delegation that visited Cuba last week said that was
clearly the message that the Cuban leaders they met with sought to put
forward.
The fact that interim president Raúl Castro did not meet with the
delegation only reiterated the point: Fidel, who announced on July 31
that surgery for intestinal bleeding had forced him to temporarily turn
over power to his brother, will return.
But on the streets of Cuba, the sense was different.
''What was perhaps a little surprising is that now it seems everyone is
so accepting that Fidel is gone,'' said one of the delegation heads,
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. ``Not the government -- they went through
extreme lengths to say he'll be back. But out on the street, people
seemed to express that a new era has begun, and it's going to look a lot
like the old one.''
Even if Cubans have accepted that Castro's presidency has essentially
ended, speculation about his health has only grown. Castro has not made
any public appearances since his surgery, and photos released by the
government show a shrunken 80-year-old in his pajamas.
RAMPANT RUMORS
Castro's health is a closely guarded state secret, yet rampant rumors
spread in Cuba and abroad last week, apparently fueled by the Dec. 2
military parade in Havana which Fidel, who was to have been the guest of
honor, did not attend.
The rumor that Castro had in fact died were so widespread last week that
the Miami Police Department issued a statement saying the department
didn't know whether it was true.
Within days, National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte told the
Washington Post that Castro had ''months, not years'' to live. Meanwhile
more rumors that Castro had suffered a setback, had been transferred to
a different medical facility or reacted badly to his anesthesia made the
rounds.
''The truth is that everybody is dying to know how he is, but nobody
knows exactly,'' Castro's sister Juanita told the Italian newspaper
Corriere della Sera. ``I haven't talked directly with him, but my
relatives in Cuba assure me that he is recovering and, thanks to a
first-rate medical team, he will recover.''
Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, after first saying that he worried about his
friend and prayed for him, announced that he had talked on the phone
with Castro about trade and other bilateral issues. Chávez also said the
Cuban leader does not have cancer.
The next day, Cuba's Granma newspaper published
an article saying that Castro had spoken by telephone to a work session
of provincial Communist Party leaders, and that his words were met with
applause.
But the U.S. congressional delegation left unconvinced of Castro's
return, saying that all signs point toward a government running smoothly
under Raúl.
''If he does come back, I can't imagine it would be in any serious
role,'' Flake said. ``I can't judge Fidel's health from pictures on TV,
but I do get the sense Cuban people are just ready to move on.''
Increasingly, the mood appears to be one of wait-and-see by Cubans as
they also express growing uncertainty over whether life will be better
or worse under Raúl.
''Everyone knows Raúl doesn't have the same ability as Fidel,'' said
Pedro, 57, a statistician. ``But Fidel and Raúl are the same.''
SOMBER MOOD
While street parties held for Fidel around the time of his 80th birthday
on Aug. 13 had the feel a celebration, the Dec. 2 military march had the
eerie feel of a wake.
''The mood there is that the succession has taken place,'' said Cuba
analyst Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute, a Washington-based think
tank, who coordinated the congressional visit. ``Nobody knows what the
status of Fidel's health is, but if it turns out he isn't coming back,
the pieces seem in place for this government to take his place.''
Miami Herald translator Renato Pérez and a Miami Herald staff writer in
Havana contributed to this report.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/16286445.htm
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