By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 18 (Reuters) -- Praising Cuba's communist leader Fidel Castro and declaring himself a fellow "rebel," Argentine soccer idol Diego Maradona flew to the Caribbean island on Tuesday to begin lengthy treatment for drug addiction.
"I chose Cuba because of the dignity of its people. ... I trust Cuban medicine, and I know they will cure me" he said on arrival from Argentina at Havana's international airport.
Maradona, 39, promised a football exhibition for the Cuban people when his heart was up to it, and effusively thanked Castro for personally overseeing plans for his treatment here.
"That's nothing new. Everyone knows what a big heart this man has," he added.
The controversial star took an overnight commercial flight from Buenos Aires on Cuba's state-run Cubana de Aviacion airline, touching down for an hour in the eastern city of Holguin before flying on to Havana.
In chaotic scenes at Havana's Jose Marti airport, Maradona was besieged by journalists and onlookers. One fellow passenger shouted his disapproval of Maradona's drug habit: "Being a son of god, how can you teach these things to the youth?"
From behind sunglasses, Maradona started at the Argentine passenger, shook his head, and replied: "I feel sorry for you."
The retired footballer was spending Tuesday with Cuban doctors in Havana, and was also rumored to be meeting with Castro, before entering a rehabilitation
clinic.
Cuban authorities have said it is most likely Maradona will eventually enter the Quinque-Cocal drug treatment center, in Holguin, 470 miles (750 km) east of Havana.
"The treatment in Cuba is very effective, but you need at least three months," said leading Cuban specialist, Eduardo Bernabe Ordaz, who will head the team caring for Maradona.
During his stopover in Holguin earlier on Tuesday, Maradona briefly donned a T-shirt with the image of legendary Argentine guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who fought alongside Castro in the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
"I too am a rebel in this convoluted world," he told local state radio station Radio Rebelde in Holguin.
The 39-year-old star, looking overweight, with his face inflamed and voice slurred, smiled and waved at excited Cuban airport workers who gathered to greet him in Holguin.
Maradona, who has often expressed his admiration for Castro, was visiting Cuba for the third time. During his first trip here in 1986, he fulfilled a personal dream of meeting Castro and swapped a No. 10 Argentine national team shirt for one of the Cuban leader's trademark, olive-green military
caps.
The star, admitted to a Uruguayan hospital two weeks ago suffering from hypertension and an irregular heartbeat, is a confessed cocaine addict whose bouts with the drug bought him two 15-month suspensions during his playing days in the early 1990s.
He was accompanied by his wife Claudia Villafane, his parents, his manager Guillermo Coppola and his personal physician Alfredo Cahe, a neurologist and cardiologist.
Maradona's decision to come to Cuba is a publicity coup for Castro's government, which is proud of its medical facilities, and is trying to develop services for foreigners as a means of earning desperately needed hard currency. Havana is believed to be shouldering the costs of Maradona's
treatment here.
Maradona, who led Argentina to World Cup victory in 1986 in Mexico, first started taking drugs in 1983 while playing for a Spanish club in Barcelona. The habit led to doping scandals and ate away at his playing skills. Retired in 1997, Maradona is considered one of the greatest players ever.
Two weeks ago he was admitted to a clinic in the exclusive Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este with only 38 percent of his heart tissue functioning. Doctors blamed drugs and alcohol for what they described as a brush with death.
14:51 01-18-00
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. |