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Raul Castro stays out of sight in Cuba

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. August 4, 2006.

HAVANA - Raul Castro has spent his entire life in the shadow of his older brother Fidel. As Cuba's acting president, he continues to be on the sidelines. The focus remained entirely on Fidel Castro Thursday as Cuba's state-run media ran messages wishing a swift recovery after surgery for intestinal bleeding to the only ruler most Cubans have ever known.

"Certain of your rapid recovery, always toward victory!" a graduating class of Interior Ministry cadets said in a collective greeting to Castro on the front page of the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

But Castro's illness has left many Cubans uneasy.

"I, at least, am worried, because without him we are nothing," gardener Rafael Reyes said. "We hope that he will recover and leave (the hospital) soon."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sent a message to Castro wishing him a speedy recovery, North Korea's state media reported.

"I extend deep sympathy and comfort to you after learning the surprising news that you received surgery for a sudden disease," Kim said in the message, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. "I sincerely hope that you will recover (at) an early date and continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and significant duties bestowed to you by the people."

Three days after he was granted temporary control of the country, Raul Castro - the brother Fidel reportedly trusts more than anyone - still was nowhere to be seen. It was unclear why.

The elder Castro also made no appearances, though his inner circle issued a statement purportedly from the leader late Tuesday saying he was in good spirits and beginning his recovery. His sister Juanita Castro, who lives in Miami and has been estranged from him since 1963, told CNN she had spoken with people in Havana who told her that her brother was released from intensive care Wednesday morning.

"He's not dead," she said, addressing rumors and speculation in South Florida that her brother had died. "He's very sick, but he's not dead."

Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon told the New York-based independent radio show Democracy Now! that Castro was "very alive and very alert" when the men spoke Tuesday, and that Castro was clearly in charge, delegating specific tasks to his brother and six other high-ranking officials.

There was no other new information on Castro's health. The daily current events show on state television, replayed late Wednesday, focused on martial arts and synchronized swimming.

People in Havana continued to go about their daily business. Even so, there appeared to be an increase in police patrols in some working-class neighborhoods and in coastal areas that have seen civil disturbances in the past, such as during running power blackouts in the summer of 2005.

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the government's neighborhood watch groups, stepped up volunteer night patrols. Rapid Action Brigades, pro-government civilian groups used in the past to handle civil disturbances, were placed on standby.

In Washington, Republican senators began drafting legislation to implement a plan by the Bush administration to give $80 million over two years to Cuban dissidents fighting for democratic change. Prominent Cuban dissidents have been wary of such aid, saying it would only endanger them and their cause.

Sen. Robert Bennett (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah, said Bush told him the administration was caught off-guard by Castro's illness. "I think all of us can say we had no idea this was coming," he said.

He didn't elaborate, but the remarks may speak to the scanty reliable intelligence the U.S. has on its Cold War foe just 90 miles from Florida.

Cmdr. Jeff Carter of the U.S. Coast Guard, which patrols the water between Cuba and Florida, said there was no sign that Cubans were preparing to make the dangerous crossing in either direction.

Cuba says Raul Castro in firm control

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. August 4, 2006.

HAVANA - The Communist leadership assured Cubans on Friday that Raul Castro was in firm control as acting president, and the health minister said Fidel Castro was "recovering satisfactorily" from intestinal surgery.

The government also issued its first decree since Fidel temporarily stepped down Monday for the first tim1102e in 47 years: The Foreign Ministry condemned Israel's bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana, calling it "cowardly, vile and criminal" and urging the world to force an immediate cease-fire.

The statement came as the government insisted it was operating normally, even though the island's longtime leader has temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul, the defense minister.

Some Cuban exiles, seizing on the unprecedented transfer of power, called for the U.S. government to do more to encourage a democratic transition on the island. But Cuba's government appeared undaunted.

"The unity and strength of the Revolution is being reinforced," said Granma, the Communist Party newspaper.

"We Cubans are prepared for the defense ... and Raul is there firmly at the helm of the nation, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces," Granma said.

Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer, a longtime party leader and physician, said Fidel "underwent surgery from which he is recovering satisfactorily."

During a visit to Guatemala, Balaguer said in a radio interview that Cuban officials had received "messages of support from the most far-flung places of the world" since Fidel fell ill.

Neither Castro brother has appeared publicly since the 75-year-old Raul was given temporary stewardship of Cuba.

The Communist Party also launched a campaign emphasizing Raul's revolutionary roots and loyalty to his older brother, whose 80th birthday is Aug. 13, and saying the revolution would continue during Fidel's recovery.

Granma recounted Raul's decision to assume responsibility for the disastrous 1953 attack on a military barracks that launched the Cuban Revolution after he believed his brother was killed.

When he discovered Fidel had survived, Raul returned to his role as soldier, according to the article, adding: "This is a story that cannot be ignored in the face of today's events."

The newspaper rejected President Bush's call for democracy on the island, saying his statement Thursday ignored that Cuba is functioning normally. "What uncertainty is the president talking about?" Granma asked.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will implore Cubans not to flee the island for Florida, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington. The message will be transmitted over U.S. government radio and television stations that are beamed to Cuba, Casey said. The stations have limited audiences because of Cuban jamming operations.

US: Cuban invasion fears 'absurd'

CRAWFORD, United States, 4 (AFP) - The United States dismissed as "absurd" any Cuban fears of a US invasion of the island while strongman Fidel Castro was sidelined, officially for abdominal surgery.

"It's absurd. The US has absolutely no designs on invading Cuba," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters while US President George W. Bush was on his nearby ranch, enjoying a 10-day break from Washington.

"The Cubans are going to determine their destiny, the one thing that they've been deprived of during the dictatorship of Fidel Castro and we hope that they're going to be able to enjoy the freedoms that they clearly want," said Snow.

With Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro, temporarily in control in Cuba, both out of sight, the spokesman described leaders in Havana as "a government that seems to be in hiding at this point."

But Snow called discussions of changes in US policy towards Cuba "premature," and stressed: "There are no changes in overall policy or in details of policy" at this point.

Some lawmakers in the US Congress have floated possible changes, like easing restrictions on travel between the United States and Cuba, in response to the uncertainty over the island's political future.

Castro, 79, temporarily ceded power late Monday for the first time in 47 years to his brother Raul, 75, while he recovers from surgery to stem intestinal bleeding.

Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said Friday on a visit to Guatemala that Fidel Castro was "recovering satisfactorily."

US urges international pressure for multiparty elections in Cuba

WASHINGTON, 4 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a broadcast message of support to Cubans, urged the world to press for multiparty elections amid uncertainty over the fate of Fidel Castro.

"We will stand with you to secure your rights -- to speak as you choose, to think as you please, to worship as you wish, and to choose your leaders, freely and fairly, in democratic elections," Rice said.

Speaking five days after an ailing Castro handed his brother Raul provisional control over the government he has led uninterrupted for 47 years, Rice took Washington's decades-old campaign for democratic change on the island directly to its citizens over the US-funded Radio and TV Marti.

"We in the United States are closely watching the events in Cuba. Much is changing there, yet one thing remains constant: Americas commitment to supporting a future of freedom for Cuba, a future that will be defined by you -- the Cuban people," she said.

"The United States is also encouraging all democratic nations to join together and call for the release of political prisoners, for the restoration of your fundamental freedoms, and for a transition that quickly leads to multiparty elections in Cuba."

There was no immediate word on whether the broadcasts were blocked by the Cuban authorities.

In a separate interview on US television Friday, Rice said she had no new information on Castro's health, but was convinced "that the transition is clearly underway in Cuba".

"One way or another, a transition is underway. The people of Cuba have lived too long without freedom," she said.

Rice's remarks aired just hours after the White House dismissed suggestions the United States would invade Cuba.

"It's absurd. The US has absolutely no designs on invading Cuba," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters while US President George W. Bush was on his Texas ranch enjoying a 10-day break from Washington.

"The Cubans are going to determine their destiny, the one thing that they've been deprived of during the dictatorship of Fidel Castro and we hope that they're going to be able to enjoy the freedoms that they clearly want," said Snow.

Rice also urged Cubans not to respond to the current uncertainty by trying to join tens of thousands of their compatriots who have fled Castro's regime to the United States.

"We encourage the Cuban people to work at home for positive change, and we stand ready to provide you with humanitarian assistance, as you begin to chart a new course for your country," she said.

Last month Bush more than doubled funding, to 150 million dollars, for efforts to support a transition to democracy in post-Castro Cuba.

The money will be used to boost broadcasts of "uncensored information" to Cuba via conventional and satellite radio and television broadcasts as well as the Internet and to strengthen "democratic movements" opposed to the Castro regime.

Rice held out the promise that an end to communist rule in Cuba would bring a wealth of US support to the poor island nation of some 11 million.

"It has long been the hope of the United States that a free, independent, and democratic Cuba would be more than just a close neighbor -- it would be a close friend," she said.

"This is our goal, now more than ever, and throughout this time of change, all of you must know that you have no greater friend than the United States of America."

Successive US governments have sought unsuccessfully to oust Castro since he since he came to power in 1959, including an ill-fated invasion backed by the CIA in 1961.

Rice urges Cubans not to flee homeland

WASHINGTON, 4 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday urged the Cuban people not to flee the island for Florida because of political uncertainty.

In brief remarks aired by U.S. government broadcast operations to the island, Rice promised the Cuban people humanitarian assistance when they begin "to chart a new course" after long years of communist rule.

"We encourage the people of Cuba to work at home for positive change," Rice said, signaling that the United States would not favor a mass exodus of the kind that Cubans undertook in 1980 and 1995.

Rice made the same point in an interview Friday with David Gregory on NBC's "Hardball."

"Clearly we believe that Cubans should stay in Cuba and be a part of what will be a transition to democracy," she said.

Her remarks to the Cuban people were aired on the heavily jammed TV Marti and Radio Marti. They came four days after the official announcement in Havana that President Fidel Castro was relinquishing power to his brother, Raul, because of an intestinal illness.

"All Cubans who desire peaceful democratic change can count on the support of the United States," Rice said.

She added that the United States is encouraging all democratic nations to join in calling for the release of political prisoners, the restoration of fundamental freedoms and swift movement toward multiparty elections.

Sun, rum and revolution for tourists in Cuba

Rigoberto Diaz.

HAVANA, 4 (AFP) - Tourists soaking up Cuba's rum and sun also absorb at no extra charge a historic change for one of the world's storied leaders, Fidel Castro, ceding power he has held for 47 years after surgery.

"I felt the need to come see what was going on in Cuba," said Patrick Birri, a French economics professor from Lyon. "I believe I picked a good moment," he said with delight in his voice.

Birri recalled over breakfast at the Park View hotel near Old Havana how he arrived with his family on Monday -- the very day officials announced Fidel, 79, was undergoing intestinal surgery and asking his brother Raul, 75, to temporarily take command.

This stunning cessation -- the first transition of power on the island since Cuba's 1959 revolution swept Fidel to power and introduced a seemingly permanent thorn in the US side -- has failed to deter tourists flocking here in recent years.

Raul is credited with opening Cuba to tourism as a means of earning hard cash.

Travel agencies contacted by AFP in Canada and France, which make up a large chunk of the island's 2.5 annual visitors, said there was no slump in interest.

On the contrary, Birri said he studied Marxism-Leninism in school and has already formed a few philosophical observations on Cuba's fate.

"I see a people who are patriotic and cultured, but economically things are not working," he said. "Cuba needs investments, whose absence is stunting development."

Four days into the new interim regime, Raul Castro has still not made a public appearance -- the local communist paper this week reprinted a speech he made July 1 -- but the streets are peaceful even though state media reports Cuba was on a "war footing."

Havana natives seem to be going about their business we usual. Only the children are missing from the city's tree-lined streets, many of them out in the country for the summer holidays.

Some tourists said they were surprised at how nonchalant the Cubans seemed to be about the whole thing.

"We are surprised to see how the Cubans are defending their revolution," said Claudia Ferrari, who arrived from Italy a week ago.

With her boyfriend Gianlucca Medici, who works for a construction factory in Italy's industrial -- and historically left-leaning -- north, Ferrari said many Cubans seemed genuinely concerned about Fidel Castro's health.

But she quickly added: "Cuba needs to develop more."

Tourism, for one, is booming. It grew 13.2 percent last year and growth this year is forecast to expand 7.7 percent.

Italian, German, French and Spanish tourist groups are a more common sight these days, walking the shoreline and stocking up on revolutionary caps and shirts.

"At the beginning, we were a little nervous. We wondered if something might happen, but then we decided to still come," recalled Encarnacion Guijarro and Antonio Ortono, two civil servants from Alicante, Spain, as they ambled along the historic city center.

"We love Cuba, its people, and we had a chance to be here during this historic time," Guijarro said happily.

Canadian tourists still flock to Cuba despite political doubt

OTTAWA, 4 (AFP) - Canadians have not been dissuaded from booking vacations to Cuba by political uncertainty in the Caribbean island over the health of leader Fidel Castro, travel agents said.

There have been no trip cancellations and no drop in flight reservations since the aging Communist leader on Monday handed power over to his brother Raul while he recovers from surgery for intestinal bleeding.

"There's been no change," Louise Garneau of travel agency Yvon Dupuis in Montreal told AFP. "However, this is the low season for travel to Cuba."

Other agencies echoed this perspective.

Cuba is the fifth most popular destination for Canadians after the United States, Mexico, Britain and France. Some 500,000 tourists travel there each year, primarily in winter, according to Canada's foreign affairs department.

"Our flights to Cuba continue as usual. There's been no impact," said Isabelle Arthur, a spokeswoman for Air Canada.

"It's business as usual," said Sylvain Desjardins of tour operator Air Transat which organizes six trips per week from Canada to Cuban resorts.

"We've had only one or two people call to ask about the situation, but that's all. I believe most people trust the situation will not change for the worse," he added.

Castro's daughter says Raul is 'no Fidel'

WASHINGTON, 4 (AFP) - A daughter of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has said that her uncle Raul -- chosen to temporarily succeed his brother as he recuperates from emergency surgery -- is "no Fidel" but is not aiming to be.

"I don't think he pretends to be a leader, but he has the strongest institution backing him in Cuba, which is the army," Alina Fernandez told CNN television Friday.

Asked whether she was giving more credit to the army than to Raul Castro, Fernandez said: "It may be, but he organized it ... almost 50 years ago.

"He is no Fidel. There's no doubt about it. I don't think he pretends to be. So, let's see what happens now. It's a very critical point in Cuba," she told CNN.

The charismatic Cuban leader was said to have undergone emergency surgery to stop intestinal bleeding on Monday, and he temporarily handed power over to his brother Raul. Neither man has been seen in public since then.

Fidel Castro has been heard from only in a statement attributed to him late Tuesday, saying he was in "good spirits."

Fernandez, 50, who fled Cuba several years ago and now lives in the United States, told CNN that Castro underwent similar surgery in the 1960s to stem intestinal bleeding.

She said she remembered Castro as a "tender person who used to play games with me" when she was a child. But she noted that their relationship began to change as she got older.

She recalled that she had been "trying to leave the country (Cuba) for years.

"In 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the situation in Cuba, the daily life, was unbearable. And I decided that I had to leave in order to take my daughter out of the country," she told CNN.

Still, although Fernandez said she understands Cuban exiles' desire to celebrate amid the changes afoot in Cuba, she told the television network she "will not take part in it."

Cuba campaign touts Raul Castro's roots

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press Writer. August 4, 2006.

HAVANA - Cuba's Communist leadership launched a campaign Friday emphasizing the revolutionary roots of Fidel Castro's brother and designated successor, attempting to reassure Cubans that the regime remains stable after the leader's hospitalization.

The government said it would defend itself against any U.S. attempts to take advantage of Castro's health crisis after President Bush urged Cubans to push for democratic change.

Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said during a trip to Guatemala that Castro was doing well.

The leader "underwent a surgery from which he is recovering satisfactorily," Balaguer told Radio Sonora. "We have received messages of support from the most far-flung places in the world." He did not elaborate on the president's condition.

Neither Castro has appeared in public since the announcement Monday night that Fidel was temporarily ceding power to his younger brother Raul. Officials sought to assure Cubans that the communist regime retained its hold on power.

"We Cubans are prepared for the defense ... and Raul is there firmly at the helm of the nation, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces," the Communist Party newspaper Granma said.

Granma recounted Raul Castro's decision to assume responsibility for the disastrous 1953 attack on a military barracks, which launched the Cuban Revolution.

Raul believed his brother had been killed. When he discovered Fidel had survived, he returned to his role as soldier, according to the article, which said: "This is a story that cannot be ignored in the face of today's events."

There were no new details on the status of Castro's health, or news about where he was convalescing.

Some Cuban exiles, meanwhile, wanted Bush to go further than rallying people on the island to push for democracy.

William Sanchez, an attorney for the Cuban American National Foundation, urged the president to tell Cuba to set an elections timetable, and to let Cuban-Americans go to the island by boat to help with a political transition. U.S. policy requires halting such "flotillas" before they enter Cuban waters.

There was no sense on the island that anything was going to change. State news media repeated the mantra: "The revolution will continue."

Some on the island suspected Fidel Castro, who turns 80 on Aug. 13, was still running the show, an impression supported by the younger Castro's avoidance of the spotlight.

"Initially, I don't think Raul Castro is going to make any decisions on his own without the authorization of his brother," said Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo, a former exile now living in Cuba as a moderate dissident.

Official media continued to line up Cubans expressing confidence both in Fidel's ability to recover quickly and in Raul's competence to govern in the meantime.

"Every Cuban trusts Raul, and every one of our leaders," an unnamed woman said on state television news. "We are certain that the revolution will continue."

A U.S. official, however, said Cubans in contact with the American mission in Havana expressed fear and unease as they awaited new developments.

"We are seeing among the Cuban people a real sense that Fidel is never coming back to power - there seems to be a growing consensus in that direction," said Drew Blakeney, U.S. Interests Section spokesman.

Juanita Castro, who lives in Miami and has been estranged from her brother Fidel since 1963, said people in Havana had told he was released from intensive care Wednesday, but she knew nothing more.

"He's very sick, that's it," she said.

China urges non-interference in Cuban affairs

BEIJING, 4 (AFP) - China urged non-interference in the affairs of Cuba, following comments by US President George W. Bush offering US support for "democratic change" in the Caribbean nation.

"China has all along stood for mutual respect between nations and mutual non-interference in the affairs of other nations," the foreign ministry said when asked to comment on Bush's statement.

"We believe that the internal affairs of Cuba should be decided by the Cuban peoples themselves," the foreign ministry said.

Bush offered US support to Cubans seeking democratic change following the hospitalization of leader Fidel Castro, who on Monday temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul, due to intestinal surgery.

"I urge the Cuban people to work for democratic change on the island," Bush said Thursday in his first comments since Castro stepped aside.

"We will support you in your effort to build a transitional government in Cuba committed to democracy, and we will take note of those, in the current Cuban regime, who obstruct your desire for a free Cuba," Bush added.

Cuba was on heightened alert Thursday, wary of a possible invasion by US-based Cuban exiles.

China has long been a supporter of Cuba and Castro.

On Tuesday, Chinese President Hu Jintao sent a message of good wishes to Cuban leader.

Castro's Sister Says He Is Still Family

AP, August 3, 2006.

While most people from the Cuban exile community rejoice at the news of Fidel Castro's failing health, one woman will not be celebrating.

Juanita Castro hasn't spoken to her brother since she fled Cuba more than 40 years ago. She's been a vocal critic of his regime ever since.

But despite their political differences, the 73-year-old says she still cares for her brother.

"In the same way that people are demonstrating and celebrating, I'm showing sadness. I respect the position of everyone who feels happy about his health problems, but they have to respect me also," Juanita Castro told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to their brother Raul Castro.

"To confront my own family, this for me has been very painful. In the same way it is very painful to see this man in very grave condition," Juanita Castro said.

She said her brother was released from intensive care Wednesday, adding that she had no additional information about his health.

"He's very sick, that's it," she said.

Juanita Castro, who owns a small pharmacy in Miami, has supported opposition to her brother's dictatorship.

"There's never been a reconciliation and I've always been very clear and spoken out publicly against the regime for years," she said. "For many years I have spoken out in favor of the implementation of a real democracy in Cuba."

She said she hoped the Cuban community would understand her reluctance to celebrate her brother's illness.

"It's my family. It's my brothers. It doesn't matter," she said. "We are separated for political reasons, ideological reasons, but that's it."

Cuba to defend against U.S. interference

By Vanessa Arrington, Associated Press Writer, August 4, 2006.

HAVANA - Cuba's communist government said it would defend itself against any U.S. attempt to take advantage of Fidel Castro's health crisis as some exiles urged Washington to go further in fostering a democratic transition on the island.

"The people know they have a resource, a weapon, a place to defend the revolution if necessary," Rogelio Polanco, editor of the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde, said on state television Thursday evening.

"Once again, they shouldn't make a mistake, not to fantasize ... thinking their desires are reality," Polanco said in a public affairs program discussing how exiles celebrated Castro's recent surgery for intestinal bleeding. "They should not mess up and commit the greatest error of all time."

Cuban exiles, meanwhile, welcomed President Bush's rallying of people on the island to push for democracy, but some wanted more.

William Sanchez, an attorney for the Cuban American National Foundation, urged the president to push for an elections timetable and allow Cuban-Americans go to the island by boat to help with a political transition. U.S. policy halts such "flotillas" before they enter Cuban waters.

But there was no sense on the island that anything was going to change.

"The revolution will continue" was the mantra chanted in state media Thursday, three days after Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from surgery.

The acting president was still nowhere to be seen. Nor was the elder Castro, who turns 80 on Aug. 13. Yet the state news media lined up Cubans to express confidence both in Fidel Castro's ability to recover quickly and in Raul Castro's competence to govern in the meantime.

"Every Cuban trusts Raul, and every one of our leaders," an unnamed woman said on state television's midday broadcast. "We are certain that the revolution will continue."

A U.S. official, however, said Cubans in contact with the American mission in Havana expressed fear and unease as they awaited new developments.

"We are seeing among the Cuban people a real sense that Fidel is never coming back to power - there seems to be a growing consensus in that direction," said Drew Blakeney, U.S. Interests Section spokesman.

There were no new details on the status of Castro's health, or news about where he was convalescing.

Juanita Castro, who lives in Miami and has been estranged from her brother Fidel since 1963, said people in Havana had told her Fidel was released from intensive care Wednesday, but she knew nothing more. "He's very sick, that's it," she said.

Many on the island suspected Fidel Castro was still running the show, an impression supported by the younger Castro's avoidance of the spotlight.

"Initially, I don't think Raul Castro is going to make any decisions on his own without the authorization of his brother," said Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo, a former exile now living in Cuba as a moderate dissident.

Associated Press Writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.

Exiles weighing possible return to Cuba

By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press. August 3, 2006.

MIAMI - Jesus Perez Valiente rafted to Florida's shores three years ago, seeking freedom, opportunity and an escape from the food rationing and other hardships that are part of everyday life in communist Cuba.

Unlike older exiles who fled the island when Fidel Castro took power in the early 1960s, the 25-year-old Valiente doesn't have idyllic memories of his island homeland and said it would be difficult for him to return.

"They haven't lived the reality," Perez said of the older exiles. "For me, there's nothing good over there. I've never liked it."

This week's announcement that an ailing Castro had temporarily ceded power fueled speculation among exiles that he was near death and that freedom could one day take hold again in Cuba.

Their plans if that happens - whether to stay or return - had no easy answers. Some more established exiles may want to stay away because they have careers, property and family in the United States. More recent arrivals may want to put bad memories behind them, or return and see their families again.

But individuals' views of Cuba are often colored by the generational divide between those exiles who arrived at the start of Castro's rule and those who came to the United States later.

Juan Clark, a sociology professor at Miami-Dade College and a Bay of Pigs veteran, has studied Cuban exiles of all ages and backgrounds. He said older exiles complain that more recent arrivals only came to the United States for money.

"They say all these people only come because economic conditions are so bad. I say no," Clark said. "I say, 'They have experienced and suffered through the system more than you people here."

Castro loyalists believed in a populist revolution to eliminate corruption in the government of Fulgencio Batista, who had taken over in a 1952 coup. Men such as Huber Matos wanted change, but he soon had a falling out with Castro over the direction of the revolution and was jailed for 20 years before his release in 1979.

Today, at 87, Matos, lives in Miami and recalls the days before Castro took control.

"Let's not call it paradise. It was a very positive place, and it was a place of progress," Matos said. "It was a populace that wanted to extend the reach of the republic and make the public institutions stronger. We were lucky to live under great minds and illuminated people."

He said he would return even before a democracy was in place: "I have an obligation to help the transition as a Cuban with a responsibility to his people."

But Miguel Pineiro, a 38-year-old intensive-care nurse in Cuba, remembers a different place. He arrived by raft about four months ago.

Pineiro said he made the equivalent of about $15 a month on the island, with which he had to feed his parents and wife, whom he left behind there.

"I spent my life saving lives, and I had to struggle to eat and survive," Pineiro said. A month's rations consisted of a pound of chicken, eight eggs and a pound of fish.

In Cuba, people had to attend government rallies and meetings "or else they called you a worm," he said. "You can't stand on a street corner and say that the food that (Castro) gives the people is garbage. If you do that, they throw you in jail for four years."

Still, Pineiro said he would go anywhere - even back to Cuba - if it meant he could be reunited with his family.

Orlando Pino, 34, arrived in the Miami area in 2004 on a visa and today works as a painter. He wants to go back.

"I'll be the first to go back because anyone who has been through what we've been through would want to return to their homeland," Pino said. "The Cubans here are the ones who have to bring the message of hope back to Cuba."

CNN hires Castro's estranged daughter

AP, August 3, 2006.

NEW YORK - With Cuban leader Fidel Castro ailing after 47 years in power, CNN said Thursday it had hired his estranged daughter, Alina Fernandez, as a network contributor.

Fernandez, who was 3 when Castro took power and had sporadic contact with him, left Cuba disguised as a Spanish tourist in 1993. She moved to Miami, where she is a radio host and the author of "Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba."

Her father has temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul and remained out of the public eye after undergoing surgery for intestinal bleeding.

Fernandez will provide commentary and expertise about Cuba as the story about her father's health, and a potential succession of power, continues.

"At this critical point in history as a Cuban, it's important for me to draw the world's attention to the situation inside Cuba, as we reflect on its future," she said. "CNN is a global network, which can reach the largest population available.

US criticizes 'imposition' of Raul Castro in Cuba

WASHINGTON, 3 (AFP) - The United States for the first time criticized the "imposition" of Raul Castro as communist interim leader of Cuba, following President Fidel Castro's surgery.

"The imposition of Raul Castro denies the Cuban people of their right to freely elect their government," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, three days after Fidel Castro, a US enemy for decades, ceded power to his number two in the Americas' only communist regime.

"We are ready to help Cuba through a democratic transition and are prepared to rapidly provide substantial humanitarian relief to support a genuine transition," McCormack added.

"The Cuban people can know that they have no greater friend than America and they can count on our support through the process of transformation to their democratic future," McCormack said.

He also repeated the US call for Cubans to remain in the country and not use the uncertainty over Castro's health to attempt escape to US shores.

"We encourage the Cuban people to advance that cause, as well, by remaining in Cuba and working for positive change."

Earlier, McCormack told reporters that he could not shed much light on the theory that the transition to Raul Castro was just a "test run" for handing over power on the eventual death of the Cuban strongman.

"Our insight into the decision-making process of this particular dictatorship isn't that great," he said.

"I don't think there are too many people outside that small core group of people who run Cuba who really know what is going on."

Castro, who has been in power since 1959 and turns 80 on August 13, announced Monday that his brother Raul Castro, the defense minister, would take over his duties temporarily.

The communist leader, in a statement read by his personal secretary on Cuban media, said he underwent surgery to correct intestinal bleeding, which he blamed on taxing trips to Argentina and eastern Cuba.

US officials said Wednesday that there was no reason to suspect that Castro was dead.

They also indicated that Washington's 44-year policy of trying to isolate Havana was unchanged, saying that the United States had no plans to reach out to Raul Castro and still hoped that Cuba would become a democracy.

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