Cuban News December 26 2006

Cubans concerned about the health of ailing Fidel Castro -- for most the only leader they have known -- were kept in the dark by official Cuban media Tuesday, as a Spanish doctor who examined him refuted reports he is near death.

"We would like more specific information, even if (Fidel Castro) does not appear in public; but we would like some message from the Comandante, an explanation," a 20-year-old University of Havana student said privately.

Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido said Castro, 80, who underwent an operation on July 27, is "in a process of slow but progressive recovery" and does not need further surgery.

He made his remarks at a press conference in Madrid after returning from the Americas' only communist-ruled state.

The Cuban leader, who has been in power since 1959, has not been seen in public for five months. There have been few medical updates since his reported intestinal surgery in July.

Tightly controlled state media offered no news on the latest update on Fidel's health Tuesday.

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.

But 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".

"Every day he asks to go back to work but the doctors won't allow it," he said after his visit to Cuba late last week. He said he was full of admiration at Castro's "excellent and fantastic intellectual activity," added Garcia Sabrido.

Cuba's iconic leader "is not suffering from a malignant illness but from a benign process with a series of complications," he said, adding he could not give further details because of medical privacy.

Asked whether he was suffering from cancer, Garcia Sabrido said: "I absolutely deny that, based on the information I have."

Garcia Sabrido heads one of the three surgery wards at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon university hospital, a 400-year-old establishment with a staff of 8,000 reputed to be one of the best in Spain.

He examined Castro on the request of Havana and told the media he had travelled to the island on "a strictly personal basis" after informing his own hospital authorities. It was his first medical examination of the Cuban leader but he said several members of his medical team were old acquaintances.

In Cuba, where Fidel's brother Raul Castro is serving as interim president, Castro's health is being treated as a state secret.

But in the year marking the 48th anniversary of Castro's ousting of dictator Fulgencio Batista, his absence at a December 2 military parade stunned people and sparked speculation he might be seriously ill, or near death. He was last seen in an October 28 video, in which he appeared weak.

On Friday he was absent from the National Assembly's last session of the year, only the second time in 30 years that Castro had missed an assembly meeting.

Raul Castro, who presided over the event, said Fidel was "progessing in his recovery."

But Cubans used to decades of Fidel's dominant presence in official media, have not grown used to his absence of the past few months.

News reports late last week said the Cuban leader was too ill to receive his old friend, Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was on the island for nearly a month.

The Colombian magazine Semana reported that it was the first time Fidel Castro did not meet with his confidant Garcia Marquez, and that it was a "sign that things have grown more complicated" for the Cuban leader.

Dissident groups opposed to Castro's rule generally see his continued absence as evidence he will never be back full-time at Cuba's helm. bur-mis/mdl/sg

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Castro cancer free, could govern again-doctor

By Andrew Hay

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish surgeon who has just examined Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday he is making a good recovery from intestinal surgery, does not have cancer, and could return to governing his country.

Castro's disappearance from the public eye after emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding in July sparked frenzied speculation about his state of health but surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido said the communist leader was in good condition.

"His physical activity is excellent, his intellectual activity intact, I'd say fantastic, he's recovering from his previous operation," Garcia Sabrido, head of surgery at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon public hospital, told a news conference after returning from Cuba.

"He asks every day to return to work, but doctors advise him not to, to take it easy," said Garcia Sabrido.

Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba last week to examine the 80-year-old leader, said he did not need further surgery but required physical therapy, a strict diet and rest.

CASTRO COMEBACK?

"He does not have cancer, he has a problem with his digestive system," Garcia Sabrido told Reuters after the news conference. "President Castro has no malign inflammation, it's a benign process in which he has had a series of complications."

In Havana, Cuban officials declined to comment on the doctor's statement, but his prognosis was in line what they have been saying for months. The Cuban population was unaware of Garcia Sabrido's visit to Cuba.

"Does that mean he will back in power," asked a housewife in central Havana who asked not be named.

After Castro's disappearance from the public eye, U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte told the Washington Post on Dec. 15 that Castro was likely to die within months.

Garcia Sabrido said Castro could govern Cuba again. "Yes, if his recovery is complete, yes," said the digestive system specialist who knows the Castro family and is a regular visitor to Cuba for medical conferences and to give treatment.

Garcia Sabrido said it was the first time he had treated Castro, and he did not plan to return to Cuba in the near future as the leader had an excellent medical team.

Defence Minister Raul Castro, 75, took over the government temporarily on July 31 when emergency surgery forced his famous brother to relinquish power for the first time since Cuba's 1959 revolution.

Video images released on Oct. 28 showed the once towering revolutionary diminished to a frail and shuffling old man.

When Castro failed to show at a military parade in his honour on Dec. 2, many began to doubt he would run the country again.

U.S. congressman William Delahunt, one of the leaders of a delegation that visited Cuba this month said he had concluded from discussions with officials there that if Castro did resume a political role, it would probably be setting broad policy, not governing on a day-to-day basis. (Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana)

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Spanish doctor say Cuba's Castro does not have cancer

N GILES

Associated Press Writer

26 December 2006

MADRID, Spain (AP) - A Spanish surgeon who flew to Cuba last week to help treat Fidel Castro on Tuesday denied reports that the Cuban leader was suffering from cancer and insisted that he was recovering slowly but progressively from a serious operation.

"He hasn't got cancer" said Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, chief surgeon at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon Hospital. Garcia Sabrido flew to Havana last Thursday to see Castro and consult with the Cuban leader's medical team on how his treatment was progressing.

"While respecting confidentiality, I can tell you that President Castro is not suffering from any malignant sickness," the Spanish doctor said, adding that he could not give precise details on the nature of his condition.

"It is a benign process in which there have been a series of complications," he added.

Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July, but has since released little information on his condition. Castro placed his younger brother, Raul, in charge of the government.

His medical condition is a state secret, but Cuban authorities have denied he suffers from terminal cancer, as U.S. intelligence officials have claimed. Cuban officials have nonetheless stopped insisting Castro will return to power.

Asked whether he thought Castro would be physically capable of once again governing Cuba, Garcia Sabrido said:

"If his recovery is absolute, then naturally, yes," said the doctor.

"I think that in these moments his decision to delegate power implies that he must now be dedicated to his recovery. What happens in the future will be an absolutely personal matter."

There was no mention of Garcia Sabrido's visit in Cuba's state media.

Some doctors believe Castro may suffer from diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over 60. In severe cases, emergency surgery may be required.

Garcia Sabrido wrote in the medical journal Archives of Surgery in 1988 about a temporary stomach "zipper" that Spanish surgeons had used on patients to provide repeated easy access for draining and treating abdominal infections.

On Tuesday, he ruled out another operation for Castro for the moment.

"It is not planned that he will undergo another operation for the moment," he said. "His condition is stable. He is recovering from a very serious operation."

He said he was impressed by Castro's good spirits.

"He wants to return to work everyday but medical recommendations demand caution," he said, adding that one of the problems the Cuban medical team had was limiting the president's activities.

"He is a patient of 80 years and he will have the limitations of recovery of a person of his age," said Garcia Sabrido.

"His intellectual activity is intact, I'd say fantastic," the surgeon said. "I was amazed at his capacity to relate personal and historical anecdotes."

On Monday, Spanish authorities confirmed that Garcia Sabrido had traveled to Cuba's capital with advanced medical equipment for Castro and to study a possible surgery. The Madrid's health department has been sending medicines to Cuba since June.

Garcia Sabrido said Spain and other European and American countries have long been collaborating with Cuba in medical matters.

He stressed, however, that while he had had to seek permission from Spanish health authorities to leave his hospital, his visit to Cuba had been strictly a personal one.

A doctor at the Gregorio Maranon hospital for the past 35 years, Garcia Sabrido, 61, said that although it was the first time he had treated Castro, he had visited Cuba many times on a professional basis and knew the Castro family.

"I was required to give my opinion on the state and treatment of President Castro," he said. "I can assure you that the health of President Castro is in excellent professional hands."

Born in Madrid, Garcia Sabrido said his specialty was in the digestive system and in transplants. He has studied in several countries including the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.

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Madrid's chief doesn't like public funds going to treat Fidel

Madrid, Dec 26 (EFE).- The head of Madrid's regional government said Tuesday that she does not like the idea of public monies being spent on medical attention for "the dictator Fidel Castro."

Esperanza Aguirre, the conservative chief of the local administration, commented in light of the trip last week to Havana by surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido to examine ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Garcia Sabrido is head of surgery at Madrid's Gregorio Marañon Hospital, a public facility administered by the regional government. The physician reportedly was looking into the possibility of further surgery on Castro, who has been sidelined since July after undergoing an intestinal operation.

The 48-year-old Communist regime has treated as a "state secret" the diagnosis and prognosis of its "commander."

Aguirre said it was the Cuban embassy in Spain that contacted Garcia Sabrido and asked that he travel to the island for the consultation. That trip was authorized by the top administrator of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital.

She said the regional administration for the past six months has been sending medicines to Cuba as part of a humanitarian aid program.

"We give humanitarian aid to anyone who asks us for it," she said, although she also expressed regret that in this case such assistance was going to "a dictator."

She wondered aloud "what must happen with the rest of the residents of the island, especially the political prisoners, if circumstances are such that when the 'comandante' is ill, they have to ask Madrid's public health system for help."

She said this is ironic in light "of the Cuban dictatorship's much ballyhooed claim of having an extraordinary health care system, something used practically to justify the dictatorship and its privation of elemental human rights." EFE

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Spain sends cancer doctor and medicine to aid Castro; Spanish officials confirmed that a renowned surgeon is consulting on the Fidel Castro case in Havana, adding that they have been sending unspecified medicines since June -- before Castro's surgery. CASTRO'S HEALTH

From Miami Herald Staff and Wire Reports

26 December 2006

The Miami Herald

MADRID

Health officials in Spain have been secretly sending medicine to Havana for Fidel Castro since June, a government official said Monday, confirming that a Spanish cancer specialist is in Havana consulting on whether Castro should undergo more surgery.

Madrid Public Health Commissioner Manuel Lamela declined to elaborate on either the medication or the Cuban leader's health condition during a Christmas Day visit with the staff and patients at the Baby Jesus Hospital in Madrid.

''If I did, I would be revealing the patient's pathology,'' he said, ``and we would be violating medical confidentiality and the Cuban government's media policy.''

Castro, 80, has not appeared in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July -- after the Spanish medical shipments had begun. Castro put his younger brother, Raúl, 75, in charge of the government.

Lamela confirmed that Dr. José Luis García Sabrido, chief of surgery at Madrid's Gregorio Marañón General Hospital, traveled to Cuba's capital Thursday -- in effect making a 4,600-mile, transatlantic house call. He added that Spain would continue to give support and assistance to the Cuban government.

A Spanish TV newscast originating in Madrid and seen in Havana on Monday reported on the Spanish surgeon's trip. But official Cuban media made no mention of it.

A STATE SECRET

Castro's medical condition is a state secret. Cuban authorities deny he suffers from terminal cancer -- as alleged by U.S. and other officials -- but have been less insistent of late that the elder Castro will return to power.

The Barcelona-based El Periodico newspaper broke the news of García Sabrido's mission to Cuba over the weekend, describing him as a general surgeon with experience treating ``important personalities in confidence.''

It did not give examples of other celebrity patients.

The Spanish surgeon had been in Havana recently to deliver a lecture during the Ninth Cuban Congress of Surgery, held Nov. 7-10.

A copy of the program, obtained by The Miami Herald, showed García Sabrido speaking on two topics:

New therapies for peritoneal cancer, meaning in the abdomen.

Colorectal cancer, Stage IV, meaning it has spread to other organs.

Little else is known about the surgeon, although he made international news in 1988 by disclosing in a medical journal that Spanish surgeons had utilized a ''stomach zipper'' to solve the problem of draining and cleaning severe abdominal infections.

Previously, surgeons had to frequently reopen stomachs to get inside. The temporary zipper allowed easier access and would be removed once the infection healed, he wrote in Archives of Surgery.

HE'S DETERIORATING

García Sabrido's assignment in Cuba, according to El Periodico: ``To determine what steps can be taken to halt [Castro's] progressive deterioration.''

A Madrid-based news website called Hechos de Hoy , or Today's Events, said it did some reporting on the surgeon's mission and found that Cuban officials called for help after some sort of unspecified medical crisis involving Castro on Tuesday, Dec. 19.

By Wednesday, it said, the crisis had abated, but ''Castro's weakness prompted the Cuban Embassy in Spain to urgently contact'' García Sabrido.

In Bogotá, meanwhile, Semana magazine reported Monday that Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, a close friend of Castro's, has been in Havana for a month and has not been able to see the ailing leader.

''Fidel could not receive him personally -- which has never happened in the past,'' it said.

Miami Herald staff writer Carol Rosenberg and Miami Herald correspondent Renato Pérez contributed to this report.

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Spaniard confirms surgeon traveled to Cuba to examine Castro

Madrid, Dec 25 (EFE).- The head of the health portfolio in this capital confirmed Monday that a leading Spanish surgeon traveled last week to Havana to study the possibility of conducting another operation on ailing leader Fidel Castro.

Manuel Lamela, the health minister of the autonomous community of Madrid, commented after Spanish daily El Periodico de Catalunya reported over the weekend that surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido traveled Thursday to Cuba to evaluate the 80-year-old communist leader's health.

In a front-page story titled "Castro's health continues to worsen," the newspaper said the Spanish doctor, the chief surgeon at Madrid's Gregorio Marañon public hospital, traveled to Havana to give advice on how "to halt the progressive deterioration" of Castro's condition.

According to the paper, Garcia Sabrido - a specialist in general surgery and in diseases of the digestive system - traveled to Cuba aboard a plane chartered by the island's Communist government.

Lamela, meanwhile, also said that since June the Madrid autonomous community's health system "at the request of the Cuban government, has been sending medications via (the Cuban) Embassy."

He refused to say what type of medicine had been sent "because it would reveal the patient's illness" and, therefore, violate medical confidentiality and the policy being adhered to by the government in Havana."

Lamela said "they will continue giving support and assistance" that the Cuban government "may request at any time," adding that medical aid is "an international obligation."

"When a government requests aid or cooperation, the health departments provide it," he said.

Lamela made his remarks at Madrid's Niño Jesus children's hospital, which he was visiting along with the head of the city's regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, to deliver Christmas greetings to the doctors and young patients at the facility.

Castro's 75-year-old younger brother and designated heir, Raul, has served as acting president of Cuba since July 31, when it was announced that Fidel was temporarily handing over power after undergoing risky surgery to stop intestinal bleeding.

The exact nature of his ailment remains a "state secret." EFE

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Raul Castro says no excuse for island's transportation and food problems

By ANITA SNOW

Associated Press Writer

23 December 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Acting president Raul Castro complained to lawmakers about inefficiencies in the island's economy, telling them that there is no excuse for the transportation and food production problems that anger many Cubans.

"In this Revolution we are tired of excuses," he said in comments made public Saturday, giving the strongest sense yet of the frank and demanding leadership style he will likely adopt if his ailing older brother Fidel Castro does not return as president.

After almost five months in power, it has become clear that the 75-year-old Raul Castro will call officials to account for their actions and demand they produce real results, rather than offer mere political platitudes.

He also has shown a willingness to criticize aspects of the communist system that are not working.

"The Revolution cannot lie," he said in comments published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "This isn't saying that there have been comrades who have lied, but the imprecision, inexact data, consciously or unconsciously masked, can no longer continue."

Castro spoke Friday afternoon during a year-end meeting of the National Assembly. He did not address the two-hour session that international journalists were allowed to attend in the morning.

Excerpts of his comments aired later on state television showed him looking gruff and almost angry as spoke in a strong, controlled tone about problems affecting average Cubans.

It was unknown how long he spoke, but Castro tends toward short speeches with concrete messages on local matters -- a sharp contrast to his older brother's extemporaneous discourses that often ran many hours while ranging over philosophical thoughts on world and Cuban affairs.

Lacking the charisma of his more famous brother, Castro will need to make changes that improve the lives of Cubans to gain the popular support necessary to govern over the long run.

Public transportation problems top the list of Cubans' many complaints about the system, a litany that includes crumbling housing, insufficient food for their families and government paychecks that don't cover basic expenses.

Castro's willingness to publicly criticize the system's failings is a switch from the past policy under his brother of extolling the virtues of the revolution while blaming a handful of corrupt individuals for problems.

But it is too early to know whether his frankness could evolve into a more generalized kind of Cuban glasnost, the policy of openness in public discussions that was promoted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s.

Fidel Castro, 80, temporarily ceded his powers to his brother July 31 when it was announced he had undergone emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding. He has not appeared in public since, and looked thin and frail in a government video released in late October.

Fidel's medical condition is a state secret, but Cuban authorities deny he suffers from terminal cancer as U.S. intelligence officials say. Yet officials also have stopped insisting he will return to power, making it more probable that Raul, his constitutionally designated successor, will eventually assume a permanent role.

Unlike Fidel, who in recent year rolled back modest economic reforms adopted in the 1990s, Raul is believed to favor a limited opening up of the economy.

Raul, who also is defense minister, has long railed against government inefficiency.

During Friday's parliamentary session, he criticized the "bureaucratic red tape" preventing the government from completing payments to the individual farmers and cooperatives producing 65 percent of the island's vegetables.

In excerpts of his comments aired Friday night on state television, Castro also criticized efforts to improve Cuba's dilapidated public transportation, saying it is "practically on the point of collapse."

Phil Peters, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a think tank in suburban Washington, said the willingness to blame systemic problems rather than the moral failings of individuals was underscored in October in a newspaper series on petty corruption.

The Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde told of a state cafeteria where patrons who paid for one-third of a liter of beer got one-fourth instead, letting employees skim the difference from the cash register. A government-employed cobbler charged three times the official rate because he had to buy his own supplies.

The articles told Cubans the government recognizes "that law enforcement alone is not the solution to the problem," Peters wrote in a recent institute newsletter.

"The article did not say what Cuba's interim president believes would inspire allegiance to the revolutionary project if old war stories do not suffice; that question was left hanging," Peters concluded. "The coming year will tell us if economic policy change is his answer."

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Raul Castro tackles Cuba's shortcomings

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Cuba's interim leader Raul Castro urged greater honesty in dealing with chronic shortages of housing and public transport, the biggest complaints in the communist state, Cuban state media reported on Saturday.

"Tell it as it is," he told the first session of the National Assembly since brother Fidel Castro ceded power to him in July after undergoing emergency surgery.

"Tell the truth, without justifications, because we are tired of justifications in this revolution," the newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported Defense Minister Raul Castro as saying on Friday.

Raul Castro, who is considered more of a practical administrator than his more ideological brother, said he encouraged a series of recent newspaper articles criticizing bureaucracy and corruption in the food supply system.

The one-day session discussed high food prices and deficiencies in housing and public transport, the three main complaints among Cubans.

Cubans stand for hours waiting for packed buses, some of them wagons pulled by trucks, and many live in dilapidated houses, often crowded with more than one family.

Raul Castro said it was "inexplicable" how bureaucratic hurdles had held up payments to peasant cooperatives that produce 65 percent of Cuba's food.

The younger Castro has criticized state inefficiencies in the past, but now he is effectively running the country. He is said to favor reforms easing state controls over the economy.

Raul Castro said his brother was continuing to recover from an undisclosed illness.

Fidel Castro, in power since a 1959 revolution, has not been seen in public since July 26. His prolonged absence has fueled speculation that he is dying and uncertainty about Cuba's future.

The low-key Raul Castro, who has spent most of his life in the shadow of his larger-than-life brother, said he will govern in a more collegiate way.

Last week, in an address to university student leaders, he stressed the need for debate and disagreement to improve decision-making.

There is also a difference in style between the two men.

The low-key Raul Castro's practical approach to Cuba's economic problems contrasted with that of his more famous brother, who ran Cuba with hours-long meandering speeches that focused less on solving domestic problems and more on attacking his ideological enemy the United States and defending the rights of Third World countries.

Raul Castro also called for more debate and self-criticism to deal with the many problems facing the country and said the state-run press had an important role to play, the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma reported.

Cuba posted a record 12.5 percent growth rate for the year, using a unique method of calculation that adds free education, medical care and other social services provided by the state.

But officials said the island nation of 11 million has still not recovered fully from the severe crisis it suffered since the collapse of its benefactor the Soviet Union in 1991.

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CUBA ECONOMY GROWING; OFFICIALS CLAIM PROMISING RESULTS; STILL NO NEWS FROM AILING CASTRO

By Doreen Hemlock Havana Bureau

23 December 2006

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

HAVANA

Cuban officials unveiled stellar economic results to the nation's Legislature on Friday, but hopes for a message from ailing Fidel Castro never materialized.

Officials said Cuba posted its fastest economic growth in its socialist history this year: 12.5 percent, the highest rate in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

The boost helps the island in its recovery from its worst economic crisis ever, prompted by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of its generous subsidies to Cuba in the 1990s.

But serious problems remain. Cuba is still short on the foreign currency needed to import basics such as oil, buses and food. And local output and productivity remain low, so the island doesn't produce enough supplies domestically either, officials said.

"Let's work to get the maximum results with the minimum spending possible," Finance Minister Georgina Barreiro told the National Assembly, urging islanders to toil harder and smarter in 2007.

On the streets of Havana, many residents were not impressed with announcements the economy sprinted past last year's 11.8 percent growth and 5.4 percent in 2004. Nor were they wowed by an announcement to the Assembly that the government had pared the budget deficit to 3 percent of economic output.

Instead, they wanted to see more tangible results in their daily lives: salaries that could stretch to buy chicken and beef, plus the mobilization of more buses. Many recalled better times before the demise of the Soviet bloc crippled Cuba's economy.

"I wish prices would come down for food and other basics," said Jose Miguel Arias, 34, who sells T-shirts to tourists at an artisans fair. "And transportation in Cuba is the worst."

Independent economic sources such as the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean have questioned Cuba's economic data. The government recently revised its method for calculating growth to place a value on the many free services it provides, including health care and education. Some say the formula overstates growth by about 3 percentage points.

Even using calculations by others, Cuba's economy would have grown far faster -- 9.5 percent -- than the 5.3 percent average in Latin America this year, Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said. Yet he defended Cuba's calculations.

"Cuba doesn't falsify statistics nor manipulate them for electoral purposes," Rodriguez told the one-party Legislature, including 90 deputies who have been in the Assembly since its founding 30 years ago.

The economic news came during a session Friday in which 502 deputies approved economic and budget bills without objection or discussion in public.

Before the meeting, speculation swirled about whether Fidel Castro, recovering from intestinal surgery late July and last seen in a video late October, might send a message to the Assembly. But there was no news from the 80-year-old.

Cuba's acting chief Raúl Castro was present at the Assembly, but did not speak during the roughly hourlong part of the session open to the press at Havana's main convention center.

At least one political dissident group, the Progressive Arch, has asked for Raúl Castro to be made the permanent leader. But the Assembly apparently did not address the issue. Officials continue to insist Fidel Castro is recovering.\ Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com.

ABSENCE: Cuban interim leader and Defense Minister Raúl Castro, beside Fidel Castro's empty seat, takes part in the National Assembly key annual session on Friday, with no mention of his ailing brother. AFP photo/Adalberto Roque

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Raul Castro urges transport plan

By Stephen Gibbs
BBC News, Havana

Cuba's acting President Raul Castro has said Cuba's transportation system is practically on the point of collapse.

Speaking to members of the National Assembly, he also said there was "no excuse" for many of the problems the communist-led island faces.

The comments, excerpts of which have been published in the Cuban state media, are being seen as a marked change of style from his brother Fidel.

The veteran leader has not been seen in public since having surgery in July.

He did not attend the closed-door National Assembly meeting, amid continued speculation over the state of his health.

Media debate

"Tell it as it is," is what Raul Castro is reported to have urged assembly members to do.

Almost five months into his acting presidency, the head of the Cuban army is stamping his own style on the way this country is run.

The assembly meeting, which in the past has been dominated by lengthy, sometimes meandering speeches by Fidel Castro, wrapped up in a single day.

Raul Castro said the revolution was tired of justifications. He said it was "inexplicable" how bureaucracy was delaying payments to farmers, and warned that simply buying thousands of new buses was no solution to Cuba's transportation problems.

The younger Castro is also reported to have urged more debate and self criticism in the media, which is entirely state run and has tended to take a congratulatory tone.

Raul Castro is believed to be more open to the idea of economic reform than his elder brother, but it is not yet clear whether he might be heading down that path.

Nor is it known what is the current prognosis for Fidel Castro, who is suffering from an unspecified gastric illness, and has been out of public view for almost five months.

Story from BBC NEWS:

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Fidel Castro's chair empty as Cuban parliament holds first session since his illness

By ANITA SNOW

Associated Press Writer

22 December 2006

HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro's chair was empty Friday, but Cuban lawmakers quickly approved a spending plan for 2007 in their first session since he fell ill, a sign that the communist government will sail ahead without the bearded guerrilla leader at its helm.

Castro's empty chair on the stage facing rows of more than 500 National Assembly deputies was a gaping reminder of the 80-year-old's illness and the doubts about whether the once larger-than-life leader will one day sit there again.

Left unoccupied out of respect for Castro, who stepped aside five months ago, the empty seat also underscored the widespread belief that no major changes in Cuba's economic system will occur while Fidel Castro is alive. His brother Raul is believed to favor modest economic opening.

But the session -- at least during the first two hours international journalists were allowed to witness -- did reflect the businesslike style of Raul Castro, who is serving as the island's provisional leader.

Unlike his more loquacious older sibling, the 75-year-old defense minister did not make any extemporaneous speeches or query ministers giving economic reports, and instead listened quietly.

The meeting, which reported economic results for 2006 and plans for 2007, began on time and went into a recess exactly two hours later.

"Raul's style is indeed different," said Cuba expert Wayne Smith, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana from 1979-82. "I think we can expect from him ... a more collegial style of government."

But references to the elder Castro were peppered throughout.

"We will be ready to carry out your orders and guarantee your work with the faith in victory that you have always instilled in us," Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said in comments addressed to the "Maximum Leader."

Dressed in his olive green uniform, Raul Castro sat in his customary seat just to the left of his brother's empty chair. National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon presided over the session, as usual.

Raul Castro has been signaling a more collaborative leadership style since assuming provisional power, delegating more responsibilities and calling for more public debate.

As is typical at National Assembly sessions, he was surrounded Friday by other members of the leadership, including vice presidents Carlos Lage and Esteban Lazo and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

All top Cuban officials, including the Castro brothers, are members of the rubber-stamp National Assembly, whose lawmakers are elected in direct balloting every five years.

The elder Castro has almost always attended the sessions, but excused himself in 2002 after an insect bite on his leg became seriously infected and doctors prescribed antibiotics and rest. It was the first time he had ever made a health problem public.

His current medical condition has been a state secret since he temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, announcing he had undergone emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding.

He has not been seen in public since, appearing only in government photos and videos. In the last video released in late October he appeared thin and frail.

Castro loyalists were deeply disappointed early this month when he did not show up for a major military parade marking the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces and belated celebrations of his Aug. 13 birthday.

Cuban officials have insisted that Castro will recover and return to public life, but many acknowledge privately that it seems increasingly unlikely he will resume his once powerful role.

They have repeatedly denied that Castro suffers from cancer or some other terminal ailment, as U.S. intelligence officials and others have speculated.

Some U.S. doctors have said that Castro might have diverticular disease, which can cause bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over 60. In severe cases, emergency surgery may be required.

Castro was elected by National Assembly deputies to his sixth term as president of Cuba's governing Council of State in March 2003.

At the same time, they re-elected Raul Castro as the council's first vice president, ratifying his role as his brother's constitutionally designated successor.

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Raul Castro says Fidel is faring better

HAVANA, Dec 23, 2006 (AFP) -

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for months following surgery, is continuing to progress in his recovery, interim leader Raul Castro said, as reported in official media Saturday.

Fidel Castro, 80, "continues to make progress in his recovery," his brother and defense chief Raul Castro, 75, said Friday at the close of a National Assembly session to which international media did not have access.

Friday, Fidel Castro did not attend the National Assembly's last session of the year, fanning lingering uncertainty about his health.

Castro's absence spotlighted the looming question about the future of Cuba, the only Communist-ruled country in the Americas. He has only missed the session once in 30 years.

The leader of the assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, ended the eight-hour meeting, where Castro's customary chair sat empty, without transmitting any message from Cuba's longtime leader.

Castro, who has ruled Cuba since 1959, has not been seen in public since July 26, and he temporarily handed over power to his brother five days later after undergoing intestinal surgery.

The US Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, told the Washington Post December 15 that Castro is very ill and close to death.

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Cuban Eyes Focus on Leader Who Isn't There

By MARC LACEY

23 December 2006

The New York Times

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 22 -- Cuba's acting leader, Raul Castro, sat silently as the country's Parliament opened its year-end session in Havana on Friday, and all eyes were on the empty chair next to him from which his elder brother, Fidel, usually presides.

The first meeting of the National Assembly since Fidel Castro went into surgery in late July was, according to news service reports, much like many other legislative sessions in Havana: bland.

But this one was watched closely just in case the ailing octogenarian leader, who used to pepper underlings with questions, showed up -- he did not -- or in the unlikely event that the Assembly opened a debate on the island's future.

In Washington, a discussion of that future is already in full swing. Top Bush administration aides held a meeting at the White House on Thursday on a post-Castro Cuba.

The meeting, which was not publicized but was reported by Bloomberg News, included Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser; Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser.

In Havana, whatever transition is occurring is a slow-motion one, although with intriguing signs that the younger Castro may steer a different course. In comments that veered from his brother's philosophy, Raul Castro, 75, who is also the defense minister, told about 800 student leaders this week that they ought to engage ''fearlessly'' in public debate, Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, reported Thursday.

''The first principle in constructing any armed forces is the sole command,'' he said. ''But that doesn't mean that we cannot discuss. That way we reach decisions, and I'm talking about big decisions.''

Openly debating political matters has been frowned upon, to say the least, during Fidel Castro's tenure. Spirited disagreement was seen as disloyal, and jail loomed as a possible result. Students were watched especially closely.

''I think what he means is, he wants more discussion and debate through established channels,'' said Brian Latell, a former C.I.A. analyst whose book, ''After Fidel,'' scrutinizes the relationship between the Castro brothers. ''I don't think a democratic model is what Raul has in mind.''

In Havana, a dissident who has been jailed several times over the years for speaking out against the government, said it would take more than a speech for him to believe government policy had changed. ''The words were interesting, but we have to see in practice if this happens,'' the dissident, Elizando Sanchez, said in a telephone interview.

Even as Raul Castro suggested that he would govern differently from his brother, he made a point in his speech on Wednesday of paying homage to the man everyone in Cuba refers to simply as Fidel.

''Fidel is irreplaceable, save that we all replace him together, each one in his place,'' Granma quoted Raul Castro as saying. ''The only substitute for Fidel can be the Communist Party of Cuba.''

Government officials in Havana insist that Fidel Castro will recover, but American officials have suggested that he has a terminal illness and has handed over the reins of government to his brother for good.

Photo: Raul Castro, Cuba's acting leader, next to the empty chair of his brother, Fidel, at a parliamentary meeting yesterday in Havana. When Fidel Castro presided over meetings from that chair, he asked many questions. (Photo by Javier Galeano/Associated Press)

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With Castro ailing, U.S. officials meet on Cuba

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Top Bush administration officials met this week to discuss Cuba's political future, with U.S. intelligence reports predicting that ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro may not have long to live.

President George W. Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley chaired the 90-minute meeting on Thursday that included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials, National Security Council press secretary Gordon Johndroe said on Saturday.

"We're engaged in an interagency process that is focused on a successful transition to democracy for the people of Cuba,&