Report: Castro Looks 'Firm'
Fidel Castro is sitting up, walking, talking and even working some during his recovery for the surgery that forced him to step aside temporarily as president, the Communist Party's newspaper said Saturday.
The report on the front page of the Granma newspaper was the most optimistic report thus far on the Cuban leader since his July 31 announcement that he had undergone intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding his powers to his brother Raul, the No. 2 in the government.
"Firm Like a Caguairan," the headline of the story read, comparing Castro to a hardwood tropical tree native to eastern Cuba.
"A friend tells us that just a few hours ago, upon visiting the Comandante who was briefly dispatching some business, he witnessed some good news that he enthusiastically summed up in one sentence: 'The caguairan has risen,"' the paper said in a three-paragraph report.Friends and foes of Fidel Castro talk with CBS News Havana producer Portia Siegelbaum.
"He said that he could appreciate how the Chief of the Revolution, after receiving a little physical therapy, took some steps in his room and then, seated in a chair, conversed animatedly," it said, without identifying the friend.
"Like the emblematic tree from Cuban nature, erect, with its strong wood, resistant and ideal for making enduring things, our friend saw the Comandante, animated and standing up, like someone who is anticipating new victories and firm like a caguairan," it concluded.
Granma had used the term caguairan on Monday in recounting a story that an unnamed "friend" told the newspaper leadership, of an earlier visit with Castro during his recovery. It was unclear if it was the same person who had visited Castro on separate occasions and used the same term to describe him.
The tree, known in other parts of Latin America as a quebracho, is famed for its resistant nature.
"Sadly, Granma's optimism of Fidel Castro's health is in sharp contrast to political prisoners who are rotting in Cuban prisons for simply disagreeing," said Alfredo Mesa, spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation. "Dead or alive, change in Cuba must come now. The era of Fidel Castro must end."
Despite the optimistic assessment of Castro's progress, few believed that he would be making a public appearance on his 80th birthday Sunday.
Authorities had planned several days of parties, concerts and conferences on his legacy in the ultimate tribute to Cuba's "Maximum Leader." But instead, Castro is expected to spend the weekend in recovery, and the celebrations have been postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Cubans, who have cultivated a myth over the last half-century that Castro is invincible, are now confronting the fact that he is an elderly man who will someday die.
Since Castro announced his illness almost two weeks ago, Cubans have calmly and quietly gone about their business, waiting for more news about his condition and wondering what the future holds.