OMEN
08-03-2006, 12:58 PM
WASHINGTON: Despite statements that ailing President Fidel Castro is stable and in good spirits after surgery for an intestinal problem, it remains unclear whether the man who has ruled Cuba for almost a half a century will return to power.
Dr Castro, who turns 80 on August 13, temporarily handed over the presidency and the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party to his younger brother Raul, 75, before he entered a hospital in Havana for what he admitted was "serious surgery".
In the statement read on state television, he was quoted as saying: "I cannot make up positive news. My health is stable and, as for my spirits, I feel perfectly fine."
Dr Castro is also quoted as thanking world leaders for their good wishes and urging the Cuban people to remain calm.
In Miami, home to almost 700,000 Cuban exiles, most of whom have been celebrating since it was announced that Dr Castro was ill, there was a widespread view that the President was already dead.
Senator Mel Martinez, the Republican senator from Florida who came to the US as a teenager fleeing the Castro regime, said Dr Castro may indeed have died.
"This could all be part of a staged process to get the Cuban people ready for Castro's passing," he said.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Bush Administration had no intelligence on whether Dr Castro was alive or dead, but the consensus among Cuba watchers was that he planned to return to the presidency.
"We don't know what the condition of Fidel Castro is, but we have no reason to believe that he has died," he said.
Mr Snow said the State Department had drawn up detailed plans that covered possible US offers of aid to promote democracy in Cuba after Dr Castro's death, but this depended on the Cuban Government accepting such aid.
"We have no plans to reach out to Raul Castro, but we will be ready and eager to provide humanitarian, economic and other aid to the people of Cuba at the appropriate time," he said.
The US broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba after the revolution in 1959, as Dr Castro started to develop close relations with the Soviet Union. The US imposed an economic embargo on Cuba that is still in place.
State Department officials have said there will be no loosening of the economic embargo unless there are clear signs that Dr Castro's successor is committed to democratic reforms.
The economic embargo is strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of Cuban exiles in the US, who have real political power in Florida. Many dream of returning to Cuba after Dr Castro and his regime are gone. There is growing sentiment in Congress that the economic embargo should be lifted, but Senator Martinez said there was no way it would be removed while Cuba remained what he called a dictatorship.
"We hope that Cuba is now approaching a time when the people will be free to choose their leaders and we can then establish close ties with the country," he said.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush, said the US Coast Guard was preparing for "all sorts of contingencies", including the possibility of a mass exodus from Cuba if political instability followed Dr Castro's death.
Reuters
Dr Castro, who turns 80 on August 13, temporarily handed over the presidency and the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party to his younger brother Raul, 75, before he entered a hospital in Havana for what he admitted was "serious surgery".
In the statement read on state television, he was quoted as saying: "I cannot make up positive news. My health is stable and, as for my spirits, I feel perfectly fine."
Dr Castro is also quoted as thanking world leaders for their good wishes and urging the Cuban people to remain calm.
In Miami, home to almost 700,000 Cuban exiles, most of whom have been celebrating since it was announced that Dr Castro was ill, there was a widespread view that the President was already dead.
Senator Mel Martinez, the Republican senator from Florida who came to the US as a teenager fleeing the Castro regime, said Dr Castro may indeed have died.
"This could all be part of a staged process to get the Cuban people ready for Castro's passing," he said.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Bush Administration had no intelligence on whether Dr Castro was alive or dead, but the consensus among Cuba watchers was that he planned to return to the presidency.
"We don't know what the condition of Fidel Castro is, but we have no reason to believe that he has died," he said.
Mr Snow said the State Department had drawn up detailed plans that covered possible US offers of aid to promote democracy in Cuba after Dr Castro's death, but this depended on the Cuban Government accepting such aid.
"We have no plans to reach out to Raul Castro, but we will be ready and eager to provide humanitarian, economic and other aid to the people of Cuba at the appropriate time," he said.
The US broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba after the revolution in 1959, as Dr Castro started to develop close relations with the Soviet Union. The US imposed an economic embargo on Cuba that is still in place.
State Department officials have said there will be no loosening of the economic embargo unless there are clear signs that Dr Castro's successor is committed to democratic reforms.
The economic embargo is strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of Cuban exiles in the US, who have real political power in Florida. Many dream of returning to Cuba after Dr Castro and his regime are gone. There is growing sentiment in Congress that the economic embargo should be lifted, but Senator Martinez said there was no way it would be removed while Cuba remained what he called a dictatorship.
"We hope that Cuba is now approaching a time when the people will be free to choose their leaders and we can then establish close ties with the country," he said.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush, said the US Coast Guard was preparing for "all sorts of contingencies", including the possibility of a mass exodus from Cuba if political instability followed Dr Castro's death.
Reuters