Reading Between Lines On Castro's Health
Portia Siegelbaum is a CBS News producer based in Havana.
Whether they bring relief or consternation, statements made today by a Spanish doctor are the first confirmations from an outside source of what the Cuban Government has been saying all along: that Fidel Castro does not have cancer and is recovering from a still unspecified illness.
The new details were provided by Doctor Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who was brought to Havana last Thursday for a consultation on the progress of Castro's treatment. The Associated Press reports Garcia, the chief surgeon at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon Hospital, said "He hasn't got cancer … It is not planned that he will undergo another operation for the moment. His condition is stable."
Miriam Ribas, a biologist retired from Havana's Animal Sciences Institute, expressed relief when told about Garcia's statements. "I was really worried," she said.
Ribas, like many Cubans, have interpreted the lack of information on Castro's condition as bad news. The government treats the Cuban leader's illness as a state secret -- the last time they released any pictures of Castro was in late October. And the video shown then was not reassuring. Instead it revealed a frail and gaunt Castro.
The Cuban media did not report Dr. Garcia's presence here. Ribas said she learnt about it from listening to the BBC.
Neither, today's edition of the Communist Party daily Granma or Cuba's state-run radio or television reported Dr. Garcia's statements to the press in Madrid.
Dr. Garcia's declarations to the press in Madrid are giving the most information anyone has had on Fidel Castro's condition since July 31, when the Cuban President announced he had undergone surgery for intestinal bleeding.
"While respecting confidentiality, I can tell you that President Castro is not suffering from any malignant sickness," AP reports the doctor saying. "It is a benign process in which there have been a series of complications," he told a Madrid press conference.
Speculation at home and abroad as to the nature of Castro's illness has been widespread. The U.S.'s top intelligence chief John Negroponte told the Washington Post earlier this month that Castro's illness was terminal and would probably only last a few more months.
A Canadian business woman living in Cuba and friendly with several members of the Castro clan said only last week that one of the Castros suggested she cancel her traditional December 30th party because "No one would be able to attend." From that she concluded Castro's condition was worsening.
But according to Dr. Garcia, as reported by AP, Castro is in good spirits and "He wants to return to work everyday but medical recommendations demand caution." Garcia also told the press Castro was mentally alert. "He has his intellectual activity intact," he said, according to AP.
Reuters news agency spoke with Garcia following the press conference and reports him saying the 80-year old Castro "required muscular rehabilitation and a strict diet in order to recover."
In response to questions from the media, Dr. Garcia did not rule out the possibility of Castro returning to office. "If his recovery is absolute, then naturally, yes," he is quoted as saying.
Castro temporarily turned over power to his brother Raul, younger by five years, at the end of July. Numerous Cuban Government sources have suggested that a succession has already taken place and that a recovered Fidel would play the role of an experienced councilor rather than actively taking up the reins of government again. That opinion was echoed by U.S. Representative William Delahunt after speaking with several top Cuban officials in Havana earlier this month.