OMEN
08-05-2006, 08:58 PM
HAVANA: Cuban leader Fidel Castro is recovering from surgery and will return to office soon, the health minister said overnight as uncertainty grew over the future of the island he has ruled for nearly half a century.
Castro's younger brother Raul is in firm control of the communist country and its military while he was in hospital, state media said.
The United States, which has tried for decades to get rid of the unwavering revolutionary, sought to reassure Cubans it would not take advantage of the situation and invade Cuba.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to broadcast a "message of support" urging Cubans to stay and work for a peaceful transition of power.
News that Castro, 79, had handed over power temporarily to his brother after surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding spurred speculation on whether his rigid rule was about to end.
It was the first time since his 1959 guerrilla victory that Castro, one of the most iconic and controversial world leaders of the past 50 years, had delegated power to anyone else.
In Cuba, where he has dominated almost every aspect of life, and across the Florida Straits in Miami, home to many thousands of exiles who yearn for his demise, people have anxiously awaited developments. Castro's brother has not been seen in public since the surgery was announced and few details have been given out.
But Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer, visiting a Cuban-assisted hospital in rural Guatemala, told local radio: "We know Comandante Fidel will recover soon and will be back with us soon."
The Communist Party newspaper Granma said Raul Castro was "firmly at the helm". The newspaper also rejected calls from US President George W Bush for a transition to multi-party democracy.
Raul Castro, 75, lacks the charisma of his elder brother, who turns 80 on August 13. But some Cuba watchers believe he could open up Cuba to Chinese-style economic reforms of the sort long resisted by his brother.
The Bush administration, which has tightened the US embargo against the island 145km from its shores, has called the shift in power to Raul Castro a continuation of "autocracy" and dismissed any chance of a warming of ties under him.
Although it has announced big plans for its role in a post-Castro Cuba, including advisers and millions of dollars in aid, White House spokesman Tony Snow dismissed the idea that the US might want to invade Cuba.
"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 they clearly want," Snow said, adding that US officials had no idea where the Castro brothers were.
Rice will appeal in her broadcast to Cubans not to risk their lives at sea in a refugee exodus to Florida, a US State Department official said.
On the streets of Havana, some expressed an aversion to a heavy-handed American role in any transition.
"We don't want the Americans involved here," said Ulises, a student, drinking rum and cola in a bar.
"This system has no future, but we do not want an abrupt change, like in Iraq."
The Catholic Bishops Conference said it hoped for peace and indicated it opposed any foreign interference.
"We ask all our communities to pray that God accompany President Fidel Castro in his illness and illuminates those who have received provisional government duties," it said.
In Miami, Castro's estranged sister said she wanted news of her brother's health not just for herself but for all Cubans.
Juanita Castro, who fled her homeland to Miami more than 40 years ago and opposes the revolution, learned earlier this week that Castro was out of intensive care but since then, nothing.
"The Cuban people, above all, need to know what is happening with their leaders. They're crying out for news."
His estranged daughter, Alina Fernandez, who also lives in Miami, told CNN she had heard Fidel was walking again and recovering little by little. It was not clear how Fernandez, who has frequently denounced her father, got her information.
Some Cubans felt the Fidel era was already ending.
"He is there, and he isn't. Nobody knows when or if he will return, but he hasn't stopped being there. ... However, people sense that nothing will remain the same," Miriam Leiva, a Cuban independent journalist, wrote in the Miami Herald.
Reuters
Castro's younger brother Raul is in firm control of the communist country and its military while he was in hospital, state media said.
The United States, which has tried for decades to get rid of the unwavering revolutionary, sought to reassure Cubans it would not take advantage of the situation and invade Cuba.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to broadcast a "message of support" urging Cubans to stay and work for a peaceful transition of power.
News that Castro, 79, had handed over power temporarily to his brother after surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding spurred speculation on whether his rigid rule was about to end.
It was the first time since his 1959 guerrilla victory that Castro, one of the most iconic and controversial world leaders of the past 50 years, had delegated power to anyone else.
In Cuba, where he has dominated almost every aspect of life, and across the Florida Straits in Miami, home to many thousands of exiles who yearn for his demise, people have anxiously awaited developments. Castro's brother has not been seen in public since the surgery was announced and few details have been given out.
But Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer, visiting a Cuban-assisted hospital in rural Guatemala, told local radio: "We know Comandante Fidel will recover soon and will be back with us soon."
The Communist Party newspaper Granma said Raul Castro was "firmly at the helm". The newspaper also rejected calls from US President George W Bush for a transition to multi-party democracy.
Raul Castro, 75, lacks the charisma of his elder brother, who turns 80 on August 13. But some Cuba watchers believe he could open up Cuba to Chinese-style economic reforms of the sort long resisted by his brother.
The Bush administration, which has tightened the US embargo against the island 145km from its shores, has called the shift in power to Raul Castro a continuation of "autocracy" and dismissed any chance of a warming of ties under him.
Although it has announced big plans for its role in a post-Castro Cuba, including advisers and millions of dollars in aid, White House spokesman Tony Snow dismissed the idea that the US might want to invade Cuba.
"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 they clearly want," Snow said, adding that US officials had no idea where the Castro brothers were.
Rice will appeal in her broadcast to Cubans not to risk their lives at sea in a refugee exodus to Florida, a US State Department official said.
On the streets of Havana, some expressed an aversion to a heavy-handed American role in any transition.
"We don't want the Americans involved here," said Ulises, a student, drinking rum and cola in a bar.
"This system has no future, but we do not want an abrupt change, like in Iraq."
The Catholic Bishops Conference said it hoped for peace and indicated it opposed any foreign interference.
"We ask all our communities to pray that God accompany President Fidel Castro in his illness and illuminates those who have received provisional government duties," it said.
In Miami, Castro's estranged sister said she wanted news of her brother's health not just for herself but for all Cubans.
Juanita Castro, who fled her homeland to Miami more than 40 years ago and opposes the revolution, learned earlier this week that Castro was out of intensive care but since then, nothing.
"The Cuban people, above all, need to know what is happening with their leaders. They're crying out for news."
His estranged daughter, Alina Fernandez, who also lives in Miami, told CNN she had heard Fidel was walking again and recovering little by little. It was not clear how Fernandez, who has frequently denounced her father, got her information.
Some Cubans felt the Fidel era was already ending.
"He is there, and he isn't. Nobody knows when or if he will return, but he hasn't stopped being there. ... However, people sense that nothing will remain the same," Miriam Leiva, a Cuban independent journalist, wrote in the Miami Herald.
Reuters