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Pro- and anti-Castro groups react to official silence
By Isabel Sanchez
AFP
HAVANA
Petroleumworld.com 08 10 06
After 11 days of silence and uncertainty over Fidel Castro and Cuba's future, thousands of pro-Castro Cubans rallied in support of the government while opposition groups held their breath fearing a new round of repression.
"Any attempt by the opposition to hold a meeting at this time would be crushed at once," opposition leader Vladimiro Roca told AFP.
Instead, officials said more than three million Cubans were holding 80,000 meetings around the country under the theme, "Reaffirming the Revolution," giving patriotic speeches, waving Cuban flags and chanting "Viva Fidel."
Cuba on Wednesday justified the dearth of news on the ailing leader's health, arguing that the country faces a clear and imminent threat from the United States.
Castro, who has ruled over the island's communist government for almost 48 years, temporarily handed his duties over to his brother Raul, the defense chief, on July 31, after undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. Neither Castro has appeared in public since.
Due to the "concrete threats" from Washington, "the information that we give about this whole situation has to be careful, limited to inform what is indispensable," National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon said in an interview with Radio Rebelde.
Cuban authorities have gone all out over the past few days to convince the island's citizens that Castro is well on his way to recovery and that the ruling communist party is in top shape.
They have said Castro would be back on the job within months, or possibly weeks, but have shed no light on the exact condition of the bearded leader, who turns 80 on Sunday.
Sources close to Fidel Castro's circle however did say that the surgery was believed to have been performed early July 27, and that a few days later Castro began ingesting light food and now was able to read documents.
Alarcon justified limited disclosure referring to a 1996 US law that establishes the US goal "to put an end to (Cuba's) revolutionary government," as well as a 2004 report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba which details US programs aimed at encouraging democracy in Cuba.
US President George W. Bush ratified the plan on July 10 "and even said that to carry it out they were contemplating secret measures," Alarcon said.
"What more do you need to realize that we are really facing a very clear, very direct threat?" Alarcon asked.
Even though US forces may be bogged down in Iraq, Cuba "cannot take lightly the explicit threat of the government of a powerful country ... that is being governed by a group of bandits," he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Tony Snow have dismissed talk of any US invasion of Cuba, and Bush has encouraged Cubans to carry out political change.
Cuban exiles in south Florida however have called for an anti-communist uprising on the island.
In a bid to tighten control to information access, Cuban authorities on Wednesday announced that police were fanning out to catch owners of illegal television satellite dishes, with penalties that include heavy fines and up to three years prison.
TV satellite dish piracy "not only breaks national and international laws, but in the current conditions are the breeding grounds for those who pretend to carry out goals in the Bush administration's plan to defeat the Cuban revolution," the government-run Granma newspaper said.
The Granma announcement coincides with the start one week ago of daily broadcasts of US-government funded TV Marti, which Cuba considers subversive propaganda.
The four hours of daily programming is being broadcast towards the island from a C-130 military airplane.
Cuban officials had managed to block TV Marti transmissions since it went on the air in 1991.
Despite the strict official silence on Fidel Castro's health, several international leaders, including president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Oscar Arias of Costa Rice, have said they had been informed that Castro was well on the road to recovery.
Guatemala's indigenous leader and 1992 Nobel peace laureate on Wednesday added her voice to the chorus saying that Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage "has told me that (Castro) was recovering very well and that he would soon resume his public duties."
AFP 10 0738 GMT 08 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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