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Miami Herald
Chávez: Castro is looking better
Posted on Fri, Feb. 02, 2007.
CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Thursday that Cuba's Fidel Castro has visibly improved, describing how the ailing Cuban leader has gained weight and is walking around and studying.
''A notable improvement,'' Chávez said, describing Castro's condition when he visited his friend and mentor on Monday in Havana.
''He has gained several kilograms, and I think he is walking about more than me, analyzing, studying,'' Chávez told a news conference.
A video of the meeting aired by Cuban state television on Tuesday evening provided the first fresh look at the 80-year-old Cuban leader released in three months.
Chávez said Castro has taken to studying climate change and sent him a book on the topic.
''He is doing a master's degree on climate change,'' Chávez said. "I think he knows more than all the scientists.''
Chávez said that Castro wanted to continue conversing, but that he cut the talk short after two hours. ''I told Fidel, enough, enough. I think that's good. I will come back,'' he said.
Cuban authorities have insisted that Castro is recovering, and have denied reports by U.S. intelligence officials that he had terminal cancer, although they stopped insisting weeks ago that the bearded former guerrilla leader would return to power.
No party: Castro event is downsized
After a public backlash, a city-organized Orange Bowl event to mark Fidel Castro's death will not include festive elements that were initially discussed.
By Michael Vasquez, mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2007
Responding to an international media blitz and outrage from some members of the Cuban-American community, Miami city leaders Tuesday vowed to tone down a proposed large-scale, city-organized public event in the Orange Bowl when Fidel Castro dies.
And despite preliminary plans that included the possibility of musical acts and themed T-shirts, the city stressed that it had never -- ever -- intended to respond to a man's death by holding a party.
The goal was to provide a place for an informal, friendly get-together, officials said. ''Our past experience has shown us that the local community has strong emotions tied to any significant issues relating to Fidel Castro,'' the city's Office of Communications wrote in an official statement on the subject. "The Orange Bowl has been designated by the county, as well as the city of Miami, as a possible site for people and community leaders to gather peacefully, if necessary.
"As such, no city tax dollars will be spent on this event other than to address public safety needs.''
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz said the Orange Bowl has always been part of government plans to accommodate overflow crowds in the event of Castro's death. But Diaz said he was not consulted before a Jan. 23 meeting of a citizen committee tapped to plan the event.
At that meeting, there was talk of setting up performance stages, printing an uplifting theme on T-shirts and creating a media village for the slew of reporters expected to show up.
The possibility of securing Cuban-born Salsa musician Willy Chirino came up. ''I'm not into parties,'' Diaz said in vowing that none of the controversial plans would come to fruition. "We're not going to hire Chirino.''
With the exception of musicians who might donate their services, the underlying assumption during those planning committee discussions was always that the city would foot the bill. Because so many details surrounding the event were undetermined -- that meeting was the committee's first -- the city never calculated a price tag.
''This is obviously not a planned activity that we budgeted for,'' city public facilities director Lori Billberry said at that meeting.
But the very idea that Miami would mark the death of Castro with a celebratory event prompted ample criticism -- and coverage by the 24-hour cable news networks and international press following an article in Monday's Miami Herald.
''Miami Plans Castro Death Party in Orange Bowl,'' proclaimed Fox News Channel on Monday.
''When Castro dies, Miami will party like it's 1959,'' chimed in CNN.
Plenty of Miami Herald readers weren't pleased. They let the paper know via letters and e-mail.
''I am a Cuban American who was uprooted because of this man,'' wrote Rachel Lauzurique of Coral Gables. "I despise everything that he stands for and he should be tried for crimes against humanity by a court of his peers. However, I find it very offensive and disgusting to plan a party to celebrate anyone's death, even his.''
The city now says musicians and T-shirts won't happen. Miami will provide the Orange Bowl as a gathering space. Nothing more.
Miami Commissioner Tomás Regalado, who spearheaded the creation of the committee, said journalists from Argentina, Chile and Colombia had contacted him about the controversy. ''It's a major, major story for Latin America,'' Regalado said.
He said he believed Castro's death is worth celebrating, but he denied that the Orange Bowl event was dreamed up with the idea of a party per se.
''One guy on the citizen's committee said T-shirts,'' Regalado said, adding that the the city had the final say. The official City Commission resolution creating the committee did not mention things such as music, Regalado said. That commission resolution passed quickly without much debate on Jan. 11, but Commissioner Joe Sanchez, whose district includes the Orange Bowl and surrounding Little Havana neighborhood, said the event idea drifted far from what he ever had in mind.
''We need to clarify a lot of things. Never at any time did this commission vote for a carnival,'' Sanchez said.
Planning committee member and former state Rep. Luis Morse said commissioners hadn't provided much in the way of direction. The panel will hold its second-ever meeting in the fifth-floor press box of the Orange Bowl at 5.30 p.m. today.
While supportive of musical performances and their potential to lure attendees, Morse said if the city wants a subdued Orange Bowl gathering, so be it.
''They are the ones who decide,'' he said.
Raúl Castro's inner circle hints at the future Cuba
Six months after Cuban leader Fidel Castro ceded power, a reformer has been taking on an increasingly prominent role while hard-liners slide.
By Frances Robles. frobles@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2007
The latest leader to emerge in Cuba is a pediatrician and economic reformer who's known for biking to work.
Vice President Carlos Lage, a 55-year-old who once served on a medical mission to Ethiopia, became the nation's economic czar in the early 1990s. And now Lage has become one of the few Cuban politicians to stand out as a rising confidant of interim leader Raúl Castro.
Lage's rise -- and the perceived slide of hard-liners close to Fidel Castro, such as Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque -- has marked the six months since Castro ceded power to his brother following surgery for a still undisclosed ailment.
As old-time communist stalwarts and young up-and-comers close ranks in Havana to consolidate power in a not quite post-Fidel Cuba, experts agree that Lage's heightened profile is a sign of a Cuba to come: one under Raúl, where an economic overhaul could be welcomed.
Once on the edges of the Cuban limelight, Lage has represented Cuba at most international gatherings, from presidential summits to inaugurations, and recently headed a top-level delegation to Caracas to sign a string of agreements with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Cuba's top ally and financial backer.
''Lage is key in all this,'' said Wayne Smith, a former chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana and critic of U.S. Cuba policy. "Lage had been sort of put in the back seat, because he wanted to move ahead with economic reforms and Fidel didn't. Raúl comes in and makes Lage his right-hand man. He's been brought out of the closet, so to speak.''
PAST INITIATIVES
Lage was credited with pushing state enterprise administrators to increase productivity and keep the economy from collapsing without surrendering socialism after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, he oversaw a series of economic changes that permitted limited and indirect land holdings and small businesses.
They were moves Raúl is believed to have supported, but Fidel curtailed them.
When Fidel announced July 31 that an intestinal ailment had sidelined him and he needed to relinquish power for the first time in 47 years, he assigned his pet projects to six senior officials.
He put energy and finance in the hands of Lage, a member of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo since 1991 and one of the younger members of Castro's inner circle. His son, also named Carlos, is now head of the influential Federation of University Students.
And while he has touted the need for economic changes, Lage by no means wavers in his commitment to socialism.
''Socialism in Cuba is irreversible . . . because with our efforts yesterday and today, we make it irreversible,'' he said in a speech last month. "In Cuba, there will be no succession; there will be continuity.''
LONGTIME NEMESIS
Experts point to Ramiro Valdés as another person who has taken a more important role under Raúl Castro. Although long believed to be Raúl's nemesis, Valdés was named minister of communications, in charge of key sectors such as the Internet.
Although experts wonder whether Raúl Castro named Valdés so he could keep his enemies close, they note that it nevertheless is a sign of closing ranks. As long as Fidel Castro remains alive, analysts doubt drastic changes will take place.
''Differences will not emerge until people start competing for political power. And, at the moment, there is no such thing,'' said Frank Mora, a professor at the National War College in Washington. "The fact that . . . these two hated guys could come together and hold hands tells you something: in a moment of uncertainty, they will come together.''
Despite the semblance of unity, some Cuban officials do appear to have lost some ground under Raúl Castro.
Experts agree that Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque appears to have taken a lesser role in the past few months. Although he gave a key speech during an international summit in Havana in September, he has not been part of many of the foreign delegations headed by Lage.
The lower profile is important, because Pérez Roque is a key member of Fidel's inner circle. He's among the hard-liners dubbed Talibans for their strict allegiance to communism.
''He was like a son to Fidel,'' said Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami. "He has apparently been pushed aside. Raúl doesn't want totally devoted protégés of Fidel.''
Also playing lesser roles in the past few months have been Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly, and Young Communists leaders Hassan Pérez and Otto Rivero, Cuba watchers said.
Old-time officials such as Health Minister José Ramón Balaguer and Esteban Lazo and José Ramón Machado Ventura -- to whom Fidel assigned oversight of education -- are expected to keep their assignments but diminish in importance over time.
For now, no one is expecting anything dramatic.
''There's too much uncertainty,'' Kaufman Purcell said. "Raúl can't really become Raúl until Fidel is gone.''
Weak Castro in new video
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro was seen in new videos and still photos, looking a bit heavier but still weak
By Juan O. Tamayo. jtamayo@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2007.
* Video
| New Castro images on TV
Cuban state television on Tuesday broadcast
a brief new video of ailing leader Fidel
Castro. He looked heavier than in his last
video, issued three months ago, but remained
weak, mumbling and short of breath.
Cuban TV said the video was shot during a previously unannounced visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who in the closing moments said he was speaking at 3 p.m. Monday after meeting Castro for two hours.
The images were the first of Castro, 80, since late October, and only the third video of him made public since July 31, when he ceded power to his brother Raúl after ''complicated'' surgery for intestinal bleeding. Today is exactly six months after that announcement.
Havana has labeled Castro's medical status a ''state secret,'' but published reports have said he suffered complications and infections following the surgery that left the man who ruled Cuba for 47 years with a "very grave prognosis.''
Monday's video was apparently designed to show that he was improving, though the images left many questions unanswered. Only about three minutes of the six-minute video included Castro, while the rest focused on Chávez's arrival, his comments and some still photos of his meeting with Fidel.
''This also is far from being a lost battle,'' Castro said of his current health problems, according to The Associated Press.
He noted that when his severe intestinal problems struck last summer he was still not fully recovered from a devastating October 2004 fall that severely injured a knee and a shoulder. ''One after the other,'' Castro said of his health troubles.
Later in the video, Chávez was even more optimistic, saying Castro had already won the battle to recover his health.
videos previously released, Castro wore a track suit in Cuba's red, white and blue national colors, zipped up to his neck. He was shown only from the chest up, with no view of his midsection, but his face seemed fuller than in previous images.
He stood in most of the images, but at one point he seemed to be reclining on a high chair. He mumbled some of his words and seemed to gasp for air between sentences, and overall appeared frail and still ailing.
After shots of Chávez arriving in Cuba and being met plane-side by Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, the video showed the Venezuelan president greeting Castro as ''the Caesar of dignity'' and saying he brought the Cuban leader "the embrace of millions.''
The next scenes showed Castro and Chávez chatting, and the following scene showed the visitor alone, saying that he had found his host ''in good humor, looking good, in good spirits, with a lot of clarity.'' He said they discussed several topics, including what Chávez called the world "energy crisis.''
Castro at one point read a headline from a printout of an Internet article about the environment dated Saturday from the Argentine newspaper Clarín.
The final part of the video showed still photos of the meeting and finally a photo of Chávez apparently being seen off at a Havana airport by Cuba's new interim leader, Raúl Castro.
Chávez's first two known visits to Fidel Castro after his surgery, in August and September, resulted in the release of still photos and a video of their meeting, underlining the importance that Cuba places on its relations with the leftist Venezuelan leader.
The latest comments from Cuban officials on Castro's health had pointed toward a slow but steady recovery, despite U.S. predictions that he was seriously ill and had months, not years, to live.
Cubans watching the video being shown repeatedly on the nightly television news as they sat in open cafes and restaurants in Old Havana said the images reassured them about Castro's health, the AP reported.
''He looks a lot better now,'' said 28-year-old law student Nicolás Fernández, who predicted Castro would live another 12 years. "I think it was a positive video. He's well; strong of mind and body.''
Bill to ease curbs on Cuba visits introduced
By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com. Posted on Wed, Jan. 31, 2007
WASHINGTON - Calling the policy that limits Cuban-American travel to the island as ''stunning in its cruelty,'' Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., introduced a bill today that would lift all restrictions on family visits to Cuba.
The bill is co-sponsored by Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who like Delahunt is critical of President Bush's policy of tightening sanctions on Cuba. Two other lawmakers, Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., have offered a separate bill to lift a ban on tourist trips to the island by U.S. citizens and residents.
Bush in 2004 restricted Cuban-American visits to their relatives from once every year to once every three years. Only visits to close relatives were allowed, among other limitations. Under the Delahunt-LaHood proposal, there would be no caps on the amount of money Cuban Americans could take to their relatives on their trips to the island.
Delahunt said he had no indication from the Democratic leadership if the bill's consideration would be expedited. He supports other initiatives to lift economic restrictions on Cuba but believes his initiative was a "stand-alone bill that both sides of the aisle can support.''
Over the past two years Congress has rejected initiatives to ease Cuba sanctions but opponents of U.S. policy believe their chances are better this this year, given Democratic control of Congress.
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