After 4 years, Fidel returns to assembly
Fidel Castro makes another public appearance, this time participating in
his first official government act in four years.
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Cuba's Fidel Castro took part in his first government function since he
nearly died in 2006, repeating his apocalyptic warnings of a nuclear war
that only President Barack Obama can avert as he spoke Saturday to a
special session of parliament.
Castro, who will turn 84 on Friday, appeared lucid and healthy during
his 90-minute appearance before the National Assembly of People's Power,
though an aide helped him walk around the stage.
It was the first time he participated in an official government act in
four years and the latest in a string of recent public appearances that
have fueled reports he wants to return to his leadership position.
Castro largely avoided the limelight after emergency intestinal surgery
left him at death's door in 2006. His younger brother Raúl formally
succeeded him as Cuba's leader in 2008.
Assembly members burst into applause when he walked in, said he looked
``as big as ever'' and called him comandante en jefe instead of his more
recent and plain title of compañero. One sent him ``kisses, comandante.''
Wearing a military-styled olive green jacket, Castro sat on the stage
among the Assembly's leadership but not on the chair that he used when
he led the country, which has been left empty since 2006.
Raúl Castro, wearing a white guayabera, sat on the opposite side of the
stage and did not speak during the session, held solely to hear his
brother. The live TV broadcast did not show the brothers interacting at
any point.
``It was clearly a command performance, and nothing about it will
enhance Raúl's legitimacy as Cuba's president,'' said Brian Latell, a
former Cuba analyst at the CIA.
`MORE IN CONTROL'
``Does it all mean that Fidel is now more in control than in the past
four year? I think so,'' said Andy Gomez, senior fellow at the
University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
``But it's difficult to take him seriously,'' added Miami radio
commentator Ninoska Perez. ``He talks about the risks of nuclear war,
and his 50 years in power have been as catastrophic as a nuclear war.''
As in all his recent appearances, Castro did not mention Cuba's economic
crisis or his brother's efforts to ease it by adopting some reforms -- a
silence interpreted by analysts as reflecting the older brother's
steadfast adherence to the communist ideology.
Castro stood at the podium and read from a prepared text on the threat
of nuclear war over Iran and North Korea for 11 minutes, then took
questions writen by lawmakers who were selected by Assembly President
Ricardo Alarcón.
He appeared to tire toward the end of the special Assembly session, held
at this request though officially he does not have the authority to
order it, and Alarcón quickly brought it to an end.
Underlining the importance of his appearance, Castro noted that CNN was
to broadcast the first half-hour live, and estimated its cost in
advertising revenues at $100 million.
Cuban officials invited foreign diplomats and journalists to the
session, and announced that the live TV signal would be available free
of charge to foreign stations.
BLUNDERS
Castro made a couple of blunders during the question and answer period,
referring to Russia as ``the Soviets'' and `USSR'' and saying that the
Big Bang that formed the universe occurred 18,000 years ago.
But he seemed clear-minded as he urged Assembly members to consider the
risks of nuclear war.
The lawmakers' questions stuck to the script.
None asked about domestic issues.
``What kind of parliament is this? It has no inconvenient questions,
does not question, does not demand change. It only applauds, flatters,
agrees,'' popular blogger Yoani Sánchez wrote in a Tweet.
Castro noted that after months of warning of the risks of nuclear war if
the United States tries to inspect Iranian ships beginning in September,
as part of U.N. sanctions, he's now less pesimistic.
``At first I thought that the imminent danger of war had no solution
possible,'' he said.
``I am sure, however, that it will not happen that way and that, on the
contrary, the conditions for a solution . . . are being created at this
time.''
``One man alone will have to make the decision: The president of the
United States,'' Castro said, because Iran will not bow to U.S. and
Israeli demands to halt its nuclear program.
If Obama approves an attack on Iran, he added, he will trigger a war
that will spread through the Middle East and Asia and cause ``the
instantaneous death of hundreds of millions of people, among them an
incalculable number of people in his own country.''
The ``established order of the planet . . . will inevitably collapse,
the reigning social order will disappear abruptly'' and all currencies
will be worthless, he added.
Castro noted that ``as luck would have it,'' Obama's father was Muslim
and his mother was Christian and added he hoped the U.S. president will
become conscious of the threat to world peace.
In comparison, he called Richard Nixon a ``cynic,'' branded Ronald
Reagan and Harry Truman as ``ignorant'' and called Jimmy Carter ``a
decent person.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/07/v-fullstory/1766527/after-4-years-fidel-returns-to.html
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