Castro turns 80, sends a sober message

Castro turns 80, sends a sober message

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 30 minutes ago

Fidel Castro sent Cubans a sober greeting on his 80th birthday Sunday, saying he faces a long recovery from surgery — and warning they should be prepared for "adverse news." But he encouraged them to be optimistic and said Cuba "will continue marching on perfectly well."

As a newspaper printed the first pictures of Castro since his illness, his younger brother, Raul, made his first public appearance as Cuba's acting president. State TV showed him at the airport greeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his arrival to celebrate Fidel's birthday.

Castro, who underwent surgery for an unspecified intestinal ailment that forced him to step aside as president two weeks ago, said in a statement that his health had improved, but stressed he still faced risks.

"To affirm that the recovery period will take a short time and that there is no risk would be absolutely incorrect," said the statement in the Communist Youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. "I ask you all to be optimistic, and at the same time to be ready to face any adverse news."

The Communist Party's newspaper, Granma, had offered a rosier picture of Castro's condition on Saturday, saying he was walking and talking again, and even working a bit. It compared him to a resistant tropical hardwood tree found in eastern Cuba, where he was born.

Raul Castro, 75, made no statements Sunday, maintaining the silence he's kept since Fidel put him temporarily in charge on July 31. He is currently the island's defense minister, and is set to rule Cuba permanently if his brother passes away or fails to regain enough strength to govern. But he's always been in his brother's shadow, even as he battled the government of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s and helped launch the Cuban revolution.

News of Castro's surgery had made Cubans uneasy about the future, but a series of upbeat statements from government officials helped calm a public now facing up to the mortality of the island's longtime leader.

Juventud Rebelde published four photographs of Castro, giving the first view of the leader since July 26, when he gave two speeches in eastern Cuba. He looked a bit tired, but sat up straight, his eyes alert.

Wearing a red, white and blue Adidas warm-up jacket — the colors of the Cuban flag — Fidel was shown talking on the phone and holding up a special birthday supplement included in the Saturday edition of the state newspaper.

The photos were credited to Estudios Revolucion, a division of Castro's personal support group that collects historic documents and images. They seemed designed to prove he was recovering from his surgery, and there was no way to independently confirm the date or circumstances in which they were taken.

After being welcomed at the airport by Raul Castro and Vice President Carlos Lage, Chavez gave the elder Castro a dagger and a coffee cup that had belonged to South American independence fighter Simon Bolivar, Venezuela's state news service ABN said. No other details of the meeting were provided.

The normally vibrant Cuban society has appeared somewhat subdued since Castro announced his illness, with some privately expressing fears for the nation's future. And while Castro's assessment of his own condition was tempered, many Cubans interviewed seemed joyful to receive proof he was alive and getting around.

"What happiness I received!" exulted an elderly Margot Gomez after seeing the newspaper during a morning walk in Havana. "Long live Fidel and long live the revolution! He knows what to do to convert setbacks into victories!"

Dozens of children in the Old Havana neighborhood celebrated Castro's birthday with a blindfolded boxing match and other games, as well as with a cake that read "Always With You Fidel." The boys and girls cheered and shouted "Long live Fidel!" after singing "Happy Birthday" for the Cuban leader.

A leading Cuban official voiced support Sunday for both Castro brothers.

"After Fidel, Raul is the man who is in the best condition to direct the destinies of this nation, either at Fidel's side or when he is no longer here," Cuba's minister for the sugar industry, Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, said while directing a crew of Foreign Ministry officials working in the fields to show support for Castro on his birthday.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin, while wishing Fidel Castro a speedy recovery, promised that Russia and Cuba would continue to be "active partners" in the future. Putin's government has sought to revive relations with the island, which had weakened following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Bolivian president Evo Morales led about a thousand peasants in singing "Happy Birthday" to Castro outside a hospital staffed by Cuban doctors. "We will always be together. Long live Fidel, Long live Cuba!" said Morales, who vowed to bring Castro a cake made of coca flour in December.

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On the Net:

Juventud Rebelde: http://www.juventudrebelde.cu

Cuban Conga Master Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz Dies at 45

A tragic early death for a phenomenal musician. Check out "A Love Spreme" on his last album.

Cuban Conga Master Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz Dies at 45
08/10/2006 09:04PM
Contributed by: WMC_News_Dept.

ObituariesUK - British label World Circuit announced today the death of Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz. "World Circuit are shocked and saddened to announce the death of the great Cuban conga player Miguel ‘Angá’ Díaz who died unexpectedly at his home in Barcelona on 9th August 2006, he was 45."

With his explosive soloing and inventive five conga patterns, Angá’ was widely regarded as one of the world’s great congueros. He was committed to the development of the conga drum, breaking down traditional percussion barriers to perform traditional Latin rhythms, jazz, jungle and hip-hop, whilst retaining his distinctly Cuban roots.

Angá began playing prodigiously early, performing and recording professionally whilst still at college. He made his name as part of the pioneering Latin jazz group Irakere and it was with them he perfected his five drum technique. Emerging in the mid-nineties as an independent musician Angá was free to diversify and pursue a variety of different projects – from the experimental jazz of Steve Coleman and Roy Hargrove, to hip hop with Orishas, to his tours with Omar Sosa, and numerous side projects with musicians from all over the globe, Angá’s musical journey was a personal quest to explore and create new sounds and rhythmic fusions.

More than just a performer, Angá further demonstrated his commitment to the development of his instrument by teaching master classes at various schools and universities across North America and Europe. Angá produced a tuition video in 2000 which explained many of his techniques and his philosophy behind playing, it won Percussion Video of the Year from Drum Magazine. Angá would continue to teach on a regular basis and built up a network of students from his base outside of Barcelona.

Angá’s first project with World Circuit was the hugely influential Afro Cuban All Stars album, A Toda Cuba Le Gusta, recorded in 1996 which showcased the depth and vitality within Cuban music. Angá became an integral part of World Circuit’s extended Buena Vista Social Club family adding his trademark sound to albums from Rubén González, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Guajiro Mirabal, and the second Afro Cuban All Stars record. Angá’s own musical vision would emerge with the release of the album ‘Cachaíto’ an inspired union of Afro-Cuban jazz, reggae, hip hop and funk which he recorded with the Cuban bass legend Cachaíto López.

Building from the foundations laid by Cachaíto’s record, and incorporating elements of his own Santeria religion, Angá would finally fulfil his dream in 2005 with the release of his critically acclaimed album Echu Mingua, an exciting fusion of styles blended together the ‘Cuban way’ and is a fitting testament to the career of one of the great musical innovators.

"Angá was an irrepressible character with a larger than life personality, whose beaming grin and booming laugh were matched by a warmth and humility that touched all of those lucky enough to know him. He will be sorely missed," said a World Circuit press release.

Cuban dissident Gustavo Arcos dies at 79

Cuban dissident Gustavo Arcos dies at 79

Yahoo-AP
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago

Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution but was later imprisoned as a dissident, died Tuesday, according to a close family friend. He was 79.

Clara Villar, a friend and neighbor of the Arcos family, and the Calzada and K mortuary nearby said Arcos died around noon Tuesday in Havana. The cause of death was not immediately known, but Arcos had been hospitalized recently.

"He was one of the most respected people in the human rights movement in Cuba," said Carlos Menendez, of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconcilation, which traces its roots to the group Arcos led in the late 1970s and 1980s. Menendez characterized Arcos as "moral, selfless and courageous."

Arcos died while Castro was out of power. The Cuban leader temporarily ceded the presidency to his brother Raul Castro last week following intestinal surgery.

With his own health failing, Arcos told The Associated Press in a May 2005 interview that he feared he would not live to see a Western-style democracy take root in his homeland.

"I do hope I will see the end of this," he said then, "but I'm not sure if I will."

Born on Dec. 19, 1926, in the small central Cuban town of Caibarien, Arcos was studying diplomatic law at the University of Havana when he first met Castro.

Arcos deeply opposed the government of Fulgencio Batista and joined Castro's ill-fated 1953 assault on a military barracks that launched the Cuban revolution. Arcos was shot in the right hip and left partially paralyzed.

The survivors were imprisoned and later freed under a pardon and Arcos traveled with the group to Mexico to organize a rebel army.

Arcos, known by the pseudonym "Ulises," traveled throughout Costa Rica, Venezuela and the United States gathering money and munitions for the movement.

The other rebels, meanwhile, traveled back to Cuba on the yacht "Granma" to launch a guerrilla war. Arcos' brother Luis was among those killed by Batista's forces when the boat landed.

Arcos was named Cuba's ambassador to Belgium after the 1959 triumph of the Cuban revolution, but soon became disillusioned by the growing authoritarianism of the Castro regime.

"They shot a lot of people," Arcos told the AP in 2005 of the summary trials held after the revolutionaries took power. "They shot people who could have easily been imprisoned."

By the time Arcos returned to Cuba in the mid-1960s, the government had turned socialist.

Arcos began expressing his discontent privately and was soon accused of being a counterrevolutionary. When he was released after three years in prison, the government refused his request to leave the country.

Arcos and his younger brother, Sebastian, became involved in the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, formed in 1978 as one of the first groups of its kind after Castro took power almost two decades earlier.

The Arcos brothers were imprisoned in 1981, for trying to leave the country illegally. Sebastian Arcos, who became a leading rights activist in his own right, died from cancer in 1997.

Shortly after his release from prison in 1988, Gustavo Arcos replaced the committee's executive director, who was forced into exile. In subsequent years, pro-government mobs occasionally gathered outside Arcos' home to chant insults.

Through the committee, Arcos issued reports about human rights complaints to international organizations and distributed copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the island.

Arcos leaves his wife, Teresa, who he married shortly after his final release of prison in 1988. He also told of having a son, from a previous relationship, and two granddaughters, all of them in the Miami area.

White House Weighs Change to Cuba Policy

New York Times
August 8, 2006
White House Weighs Change to Cuba Policy
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 — With the fate of Fidel Castro still unclear, the Bush administration is looking for ways to prevent a possible surge in illegal immigration from Cuba while perhaps easing the way for some Cuban-Americans to bring their relatives to the United States.

Any effort by Cubans to enter the United States illegally by boat or other means will still be blocked, and officials are considering adopting a policy of rejecting new or pending visa applications for anyone caught trying to sneak in.

But the administration is considering setting up a system that would speed the immigration process for Cubans with close relatives in the United States who have entry applications pending, according to a report on Monday by The Associated Press that was confirmed by two federal officials.

The change would not necessarily increase the number of Cubans annually given permission to enter the United States, which is about 22,000, but it would give people with families here higher priority.

Before the Cubans could come to the United States, however, Cuba would have to grant them exit permits, said the officials, who asked not to be identified because no final policy decisions had been made.

Consideration of policy changes has been accelerated by the recent transfer of power from Mr. Castro to his brother Raúl.

The officials said another possible change would ease immigration for Cuban doctors who have gone abroad as part of a program sponsored by the Cuban government to send physicians to developing nations. But the United States would block immigration for Cubans with ties to the Castro government who have been involved in human rights abuses.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, which oversees immigration enforcement matters, said that no changes had been made and that Cubans should not see these discussions as a reason to consider trying to enter the United States illegally.

“The administration continues to urge Cuban people to stay on the island and work for a democratic Cuba,” Mr. Knocke said.

Raul Castro stays out of sight in Cuba

AP
Raul Castro stays out of sight in Cuba

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer = Thu Aug 3, 10:37 AM ET

Raul Castro has spent his entire life in the shadow of his older brother Fidel. As Cuba's acting president, he continues to be on the sidelines. The focus remained entirely on Fidel Castro Thursday as Cuba's state-run media ran messages wishing a swift recovery after surgery for intestinal bleeding to the only ruler most Cubans have ever known.

"Certain of your rapid recovery, always toward victory!" a graduating class of Interior Ministry cadets said in a collective greeting to Castro on the front page of the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

But Castro's illness has left many Cubans uneasy.

"I, at least, am worried, because without him we are nothing," gardener Rafael Reyes said. "We hope that he will recover and leave (the hospital) soon."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sent a message to Castro wishing him a speedy recovery, North Korea's state media reported.

"I extend deep sympathy and comfort to you after learning the surprising news that you received surgery for a sudden disease," Kim said in the message, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. "I sincerely hope that you will recover (at) an early date and continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and significant duties bestowed to you by the people."

Three days after he was granted temporary control of the country, Raul Castro — the brother Fidel reportedly trusts more than anyone — still was nowhere to be seen. It was unclear why.

The elder Castro also made no appearances, though his inner circle issued a statement purportedly from the leader late Tuesday saying he was in good spirits and beginning his recovery. His sister Juanita Castro, who lives in Miami and has been estranged from him since 1963, told CNN she had spoken with people in Havana who told her that her brother was released from intensive care Wednesday morning.

"He's not dead," she said, addressing rumors and speculation in South Florida that her brother had died. "He's very sick, but he's not dead."

Cuban Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon told the New York-based independent radio show Democracy Now! that Castro was "very alive and very alert" when the men spoke Tuesday, and that Castro was clearly in charge, delegating specific tasks to his brother and six other high-ranking officials.

There was no other new information on Castro's health. The daily current events show on state television, replayed late Wednesday, focused on martial arts and synchronized swimming.

People in Havana continued to go about their daily business. Even so, there appeared to be an increase in police patrols in some working-class neighborhoods and in coastal areas that have seen civil disturbances in the past, such as during running power blackouts in the summer of 2005.

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the government's neighborhood watch groups, stepped up volunteer night patrols. Rapid Action Brigades, pro-government civilian groups used in the past to handle civil disturbances, were placed on standby.

In Washington, Republican senators began drafting legislation to implement a plan by the Bush administration to give $80 million over two years to Cuban dissidents fighting for democratic change. Prominent Cuban dissidents have been wary of such aid, saying it would only endanger them and their cause.

Sen. Robert Bennett (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah, said Bush told him the administration was caught off-guard by Castro's illness. "I think all of us can say we had no idea this was coming," he said.

He didn't elaborate, but the remarks may speak to the scanty reliable intelligence the U.S. has on its Cold War foe just 90 miles from Florida.

Cmdr. Jeff Carter of the U.S. Coast Guard, which patrols the water between Cuba and Florida, said there was no sign that Cubans were preparing to make the dangerous crossing in either direction.

Cuba says communists in control no matter what

Reuters
Cuba says communists in control no matter what

By Anthony Boadle - Thu Aug 3, 12:36 PM ET

Cuba's Communist Party on Thursday stressed it would stay in control no matter what happened to convalescent leader Fidel Castro, but failed to clear up doubts over who is in charge of the island.

In a typically cryptic message analysts said was designed to dispel fears of a disorderly transition of power, the main Communist newspaper Granma printed part of an old speech by Cuba's temporary leader, Castro's brother Raul.

In the speech, delivered on June 14 to army officers and first printed in Granma the following day, Raul Castro said, "Only the Communist Party .... can be the worthy heir of the trust Cubans have placed in their leader."

Fidel Castro, a notorious workaholic whose 80th birthday is August 13, temporarily handed over power as president and commander in chief to his brother on Monday after undergoing surgery to stop intestinal bleeding.

Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister and regarded as competent but uncharismatic, has long been known to be his successor. He is 75 years old.

Castro's old enemy, the United States, says it believes the one-time guerrilla, the world's longest-serving head of government, is still alive.

Despite a surface calm on the streets of Havana, many Cubans had told foreign reporters they wanted Raul to show someone is in control by making a public appearance.

But analysts said the leadership probably considered that if Raul appeared too early, it might panic Cubans by confirming that Fidel's rule was over.

"If I were going to try to suggest to the Cuban people at the moment that what we have is tranquillity, absolute continuity and a large team more in place than ever, the last thing I would do is make a national broadcast as in a time of crisis," said Hal Klepak, professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada and an author of book on Cuba's military.

Klepak, who is in Havana doing research, said he had seen Raul Castro drive by in a motorcade close to Revolution Square on Thursday and that pedestrians stopped to see him pass and drivers leaned out of cars to get a better look.

"Everyone broke out into applause, and even quite a few "Vivas!," said Klepak.

CALM IN HAVANA

Fidel Castro, who took power in 1959 when he led his ragged revolutionaries into Havana and has resisted almost permanent pressure for his overthrow from the United States, released a message on Tuesday saying he did not know if he would recover.

While close aide Ricardo Alarcon told a U.S. radio program on Wednesday that Castro was "very alert" and resting earlier in the week, Cubans are still desperate for information.

"Why hasn't Raul come out and spoken? That's what is needed," said a Havana delivery man on Thursday, asking not to be identified. "There is a dreadful calm here."

Despite wild celebrations at the news of the handover of power among Cuban exiles in Miami across the Florida Straits, there has been no sign here of unrest or that communist rule could collapse in an Eastern-European-style uprising.

While Cubans' lives have gotten tougher since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the capital Havana is falling to bits, the Communist Party exercises control in all areas of life. There is a lot of grumbling, but Cubans are still proud of free health and education.

Since Monday, people have gone about their normal business although there has been a small increase in police presence in poorer parts of the capital and communist neighborhood organizations said "rapid response groups" used to put down riots in the past had been activated.

Dan Erikson, analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington, said Cubans might have to wait some more before they know for certain who their leader is going to be.

"Cuban leaders may be evaluating whether Fidel is ready to be seen publicly before allowing Raul to present a stronger image," he said.

"Even if Fidel's operation goes well, there is no such thing as minor surgery for an 80-year-old man, and his convalescence may take many months."