By Philip Delves Broughton in Havana. Irish Independent. July 3, 2000
SPECULATION was rife last night over why Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since six-year-old Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba from America.
The boy's reunion with his family in Havana was a great propaganda coup for the 72-year-old Cuban leader but he has been absent from the celebrations.
Three hundred thousand Cubans took to the streets of Manzanillo, a southern port, on Saturday to mark Elian's return and protest against the American embargo against Cuba.
However, they had to make do with a written statement from their president read out by one of his subordinates.
In what should have been a moment of great national triumph, Castro has disappeared from view. Several afternoons a week during the seven months of Elian's stay in America, while the boy's Cuban and American families wrangled over custody, the nation's leader attended a daily televised
round-table discussion of the case.
He has not been on the programme for more than a week. Nor was he at the airport when Elian and his family returned to Havana.
All public statements have been delegated to members of his inner circle, including his brother Raul, the minister of the armed forces and Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the national assembly.
One interpretation of the absence is that Castro is trying to show America that he does not intend to use Elian Gonzalez as a political tool.
Others say that President Castro's sudden and baffling disappearance reflects his natural modus operandi. By never doing what seems most expected of him, he has managed to maintain his mystique and power for more than 40 years. Like a shark under the water, he is almost more frightening when not
visible.
Daily Telegraph, London |