Yahoo! June 29, 2001
Castro Attends Rally in Cuba
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 29 (AP) - Fidel Castro (news - web sites) was cheered by supporters
Friday at a government rally of tens of thousands of people called to protest
the conviction of five Cuban agents in Miami on espionage charges.
Dressed in his traditional olive green uniform, Castro sat in the front row
facing the permanent stage erected in the plaza outside the U.S. Interests
Section, the American mission here. The government said 40,000 were at the
event.
"For Cuba and for Fidel, we will continue in combat,'' was the message
Thursday night from the moderator on the government's weeknight round table
program.
The rally is the first since Saturday, when Castro suffered a fainting spell
at a gathering called to launch a campaign demanding the liberation of the Cuban
agents.
"I will tell you just one thing, they will come back,'' Castro said
during the Saturday rally in a community just outside Havana.
Castro has described the men as heroes who were merely trying to protect
communist Cuba from its enemies on the other side of the Florida Straits. Havana
insists it has the right to gather information about groups it believes is
planning violent acts against the island nation.
In the Saturday rally, Castro apparently passed out after two hours into a
speech in the sweltering sun before a crowd of about 60,000 people. He was led
off the stage by his aides, but returned minutes later to assure the crowd he
was fine and just needed some rest.
Castro, who will turn 75 in August, has insisted since that he is fine, and
that his blood pressure is normal. Since then, he has confirmed that his brother
Raul, the 70-year-old defense minister, is his heir apparent.
The campaign for the liberation of the five men is the latest in a series of
ideological fights that began in late 1999 with the battle for the repatriation
of Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez.
The child returned to Cuba with his father a year ago this week after a
protracted custody battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (news
- web sites).
In the latest case, a Miami jury on June 8 convicted three of the men -
Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero - of espionage conspiracy
for efforts to penetrate U.S. military bases even though they received no U.S.
secrets. They face life in prison.
Hernandez was also convicted of contributing to the death of four American
fliers whose planes were shot down Feb. 24, 1996, by Cuban MiGs off the island's
coast.
The two others, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, who are not related,
face up to 10 years on charges of failing to register as foreign agents and
conspiracy.
All are to be sentenced between Sept. 24 and Oct. 2.
Elian Anniversary Marked With Solemn Vigil
Miami Herald | WPLG Click10.com. Friday June 29 08:56 AM
EDT
In South Florida, the one-year anniversary of the return of Elian Gonzalez
to Cuba was marked with a vigil outside his Miami relatives' Little Havana home.
The home was the same place where Elian spent the first five months of the
custody stand off.
Cuban Children Could Be Returned To Father
Two Cuban children could be reunited with their father in Miami in just a
few days.
Leonel (pictured, left) Rodriguez defected from Cuba seven months ago and
his children, 4-year-old Giselle and 11-year-old Yusinel, stayed behind with
their mother. Last week, the mother was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Rodriguez had been working to get all three out of Cuba and now the Cuban
government has processed the documents that will allow the children to leave.
"I feel very happy, excited because I am going to have my kids with me.
Now I can say, 'Here is your daddy,'" Leonel said.
The Cuban passports for his two children, as well as exit Visas, should be
ready by today and the children could be in Miami as early as Monday.
Cuba's Castro Discusses Successor
NEW YORK, 28 (AP) - Speaking for the first time about a possible successor
since his fainting spell last weekend, Fidel Castro (news - web sites) told NBC
in an interview Thursday night that his brother Raul remains his likely
replacement.
"Raul is very healthy ... undoubtedly, he's the comrade who has the
most authority after me,'' Castro said in the report aired on NBC's "Nightly
News.''
"And he has the most experience,'' Castro said. "Therefore I think
he has the capacity to succeed me.''
Castro, who will turn 75 in August, has been in power since the Cuban
revolution's triumph on Jan. 1, 1959. Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister, is
70.
During the Communist Party's Fifth Congress in 1997, Fidel Castro described
his younger brother as his "relevo'' - a Spanish military term for changing
of the guard.
"It is not something that I'm worried about, succession,'' Castro said
in the NBC interview.
The Cuban nation was stunned on Saturday morning when the elder Castro
appeared to faint two hours into a live televised speech given under a
sweltering sun before a crowd of about 60,000 people.
"I did not realize what was happening,'' Castro told NBC. "I was
really drenched in sweat. All of a sudden I don't remember what happened. I did
realize I was being carried away.''
When asked if he passed out, the Cuban leader replied: "Well yes,
perhaps passed out. For about 15 seconds.
"It was like going to sleep,'' he added. "Like falling asleep.
Like sometimes when you are watching TV.''
The Cuban leader was escorted off the stage by aides and given oxygen while
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque calmed the crowd. Castro was back at the
podium in less than 10 minutes, assuring the audience - and the Cuban nation -
that he was fine and just needed some rest.
While Castro admitted to "perhaps'' having passed out, he said that he
was "not very likely'' to suffer a heart attack or a stroke any time soon.
"My blood pressure is between 70 and 100, which is very normal,'' he
said.
Reno Has no Regrets on Cuban Boy
By Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. 28 (AP) - Former Attorney General Janet Reno (news - web
sites), speaking on the first anniversary of Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba,
said Thursday she has no regrets over authorizing the seizure of the Cuban boy.
"What we concluded was that the little boy belonged to his father,''
Reno said to applause at a business luncheon.
Reno, pondering a bid for governor, outlined what could become the
foundation of her candidacy: funding for early childhood education, improved
access to health care and environmental protection.
In a question and answer period with the audience of 500, one man asked if
she would have made the same decision had the child's mother died crossing the
Berlin Wall.
Reno said her decision was based on the reputation of Elian's father as a
good parent and her conclusion that Elian would not be in danger. She did add,
however: "I would not have returned him to Nazi Germany.''
As about 15 people chanted the Spanish word for killer outside the
convention center, Reno, once district attorney for Miami-Dade County, said she
felt "triumphant'' that the protesters had the right to voice their
opinion.
Many in South Florida's sizable Cuban-American community opposed Reno's
decisions in the case of Elian, who returned with his father to Cuba after a
seven-month international custody battle waged by relatives in Miami.
Elian, then 5, was rescued off the coast of Florida on Thanksgiving Day
1999, after the child's mother and 10 others died when their boat capsized on an
illegal journey from Cuba to the United States.
Reno said she has not decided yet whether to run for governor in 2002, but
offered themes that contrast with Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.
Reno said the state's education and judicial systems exhibited "a
failure to invest in people'' and its water supply and environment were fragile.
"I suddenly thought, 'Janet, you tell all those high school students to
get involved. Don't you stand on the sidelines,''' Reno said.
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