Castro recovering, will keep leading, Cuba VP says
Source: Reuters
By Anthony Boadle HAVANA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro was not well enough to attend the closing ceremony on Friday for his 80th birthday but Cuba's vice president said he was getting better and would continue leading the communist island. "Fidel is recovering, we will have him among us, he will continue leading," Vice President Carlos Lage told 5,000 people at Havana's Karl Marx Theater. "We will ask him to do it for several years," he said. The bearded revolutionary has been seen only in photos and videos since he announced on July 31 he had surgery for an undisclosed intestinal problem and temporarily turned over power to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro. He has attended none of his birthday festivities, saying in a statement read at an opening gala on Tuesday that his doctors told him he was not yet ready for "such a challenging engagement." He could still appear at a military parade on Saturday in Havana's main square that caps the week's events and marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the revolution that put him in power in 1959. Questions about Castro's health and political future have dominated the celebration, which many have viewed as a test of whether he is recovering and can ever resume power. Cuban officials have said repeatedly he will be back, even though most analysts believe he will return only as a figurehead while his brother runs the government. Lage said, "Socialism is irreversible" in Cuba. "There will be no succession, there will be continuity," he said. "Another Fidel will not be possible, nobody will imitate him, many will follow him." Raul Castro, 75, attended Friday's event, but did not speak. Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela Castro Espin, told Reuters on Thursday that Fidel Castro's family was urging him not to attend his birthday festivities because of his frail health and that it was unlikely he would make a full return to power. Castro turned 80 on Aug. 13, but postponed the celebration until this week. Also in attendance on Friday were Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel Ortega, Haitian President Rene Preval and a handful of other foreign officials. They praised Castro as the inspiration for a wave of leftist governments that have taken power in Latin America in recent months. "One day, there will be many Cubas and many Fidels in Latin America," Morales said.
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