From correspondents in Washington
January 07, 2007
THE US intelligence community still believes Cuban leader Fidel Castro
is terminally ill and has "months, not years" to live.
Though a Spanish doctor visited Castro last month and denied he has
cancer, Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence, said "The bottom line: He is terminally ill."
"We believe that he has months, not years," Mr Feinstein said.
US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told The Washington
Post on December 15 that "everything we see indicates it will not be
much longer, ... months, not years," for the 80-year-old Cuban leader.
Castro, who underwent an operation on July 27, is "in a process of slow
but progressive recovery" and does not need further surgery, doctor Jose
Luis Garcia Sabrido said in Madrid after returning from the only
Communist-ruled country in the Americas.
Garcia Sabrido, who heads a surgery unit at a major Madrid hospital and
is described by the Spanish media as a top gastroenterologist, described
Castro's condition as "fine".
In power since 1959, Fidel Castro has not been seen in public for five
months, and few medical updates have been made public since his reported
intestinal surgery in July. In Cuba, Castro's health is being treated as
a state secret.
Castro named his brother and defense chief Raul Castro, 75, as Cuba's
interim leader on July 31.
And Fidel Castro's absence at a December 2 military parade stunned
people and sparked speculation he might be seriously ill, or near death.
Castro also sat out the National Assembly's last session of the year,
marking only the second time in 30 years that the Cuban leader has
missed an assembly meeting.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21023271-23109,00.html
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