CASTRO HEALTH CRISIS
Troops mobilized after Castro's surgery
From Miami Herald Wire Services
Interim Cuban leader Raúl Castro has confirmed that a massive
mobilization of security forces was ordered after his brother Fidel
underwent surgery eight months ago.
''This popular mobilization, in silence, without the least boasting,
guaranteed the preservation of the revolution from any attempted
military aggression,'' he was quoted as saying Friday by the Communist
Party's Granma newspaper.
Addressing senior military leaders Friday, Raúl Castro said ''Operación
Caguairán'' -- named after a hard Cuban tree also called ''ax breaker''
-- was ordered because he could not rule out that, in the face of his
brother's ailment, someone in Washington could ``turn crazy.''
Cuba did not publicly reveal the mobilization when it was ordered, just
hours after it was announced on July 31 that Fidel Castro was
''temporarily'' surrendering power because of the surgery. He remains
largely absent from public view eight months later, but is reported to
be recovering.
The mobilization covered 200,000 Cubans, according to Hal Klepak, a
Canadian academic and an expert on the Cuban armed forces who spoke last
month at a University of Miami conference on Cuba.
Klepak did not explain whether the number was for Aug. 1 alone or a
total for rotating call-ups.
Raúl Castro said the mobilizations were carried out successfully. Large
numbers of uniformed but unarmed soldiers and extra police were visible
in the streets of Havana immediately after the July 31 announcement.
Granma earlier last week reported that mobilized soldiers had been
practicing combat tactics, firing antiaircraft rockets, using computer
simulators and sniping, but gave no numbers.
''Never before, except in the times of the Bay of Pigs [1961] and the
Missile Crisis [1962] had Cuba undertaken in its national territory such
a mobilization of its troops in such a scale,'' the newspaper said.
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