CUBA
Castro talks about past, not Cuba's future in TV interview
Fidel Castro looked more robust in a TV interview but spoke slowly and
warned of looming health dangers.
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@MiamiHerald.com
Fidel Castro reminisced about old times in Vietnam but offered no
comment on his own country in a televised chat Tuesday -- the first
lengthy look at the Cuban leader 10 months after surgery forced him to
cede power.
Castro, 80, credited a better diet for his improving health and joked
that a 70-year-old Japanese man recently climbed Mt. Everest. But he
then added an ominous note: ``There are dangers that threaten the health
of a human being. . . . I don't want to disappoint.''
His face seemed more filled out than in recent photographs, and he
smiled often but spoke slowly and in short phrases, slurring his words
at times and drawing labored breaths. The interview appeared to have
taken place in the same room as his April meeting with a Chinese
delegation -- a room the Beijing media said was in a hospital.
But he provided no hint on whether he planned to return to power and
made no mention of his brother Raúl, who assumed most of Castro's powers
July 31 after he underwent surgery for what is now widely believed to be
diverticulitis, an intestinal condition that can lead to fatal bleeding.
''This confirms for me that the succession has taken place,'' said Andy
Gómez, a senior fellow at University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and
Cuban-American Studies. ``This is all part of a strategic plan by the
new leadership to show the Cuban people and the international community
that Castro is no longer capable of running the country.
''It shows that he is not involved in the day-to-day activities and
hasn't been for a while,'' Gómez said. ``He's living in the past, rather
than preparing for the future.''
Castro spent most of the 50-minute ''conversation'' with Randy Alonso,
host of the nightly news program Round Table, recounting his weekend
visit by Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh. He became
animated as he recalled a visit to Vietnam when it was at war with the
United States.
He spent about 40 minutes describing the destruction caused by the war
and slowly rattling off a string of facts about modern-day Vietnam that
ranged from its rice and coffee harvest figures to the number of its
modern toilets.
He remained seated throughout the interview, wearing an Adidas track
suit in Cuba's red, white and blue colors and black sneakers. The
cameras showed close-ups of his head, hands and feet, but no full-body
views.
After Alonso commented that Castro did not appear to have difficulty
reading from a copy of Granma newspaper, Castro joked that his eyesight
was indeed improving. ``I used to wear glasses. I had myopia. But myopia
goes away with the passing of years. And the first time [a doctor] told
me my myopia was going away, I asked him: Does that mean I'm growing
younger?''
And while there has never been any official and detailed version of his
illness, Castro claimed the public knows enough. ''They say [my health]
is a state secret; what state secret? I said very clearly where things
stood,'' he said.
Translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.
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