Cuba Politics News and Information
AP
A statement signed by Fidel Castro Wednesday said his weight was stable and he was eating solid foods after months of intravenous feeding that followed several operations, including an initial surgery that did not go well.
The statement from the 80-year-old Cuban leader said he was taking all medicines orally and his weight had stabilized.
“I tell everyone simply that I am getting better and maintain a stable weight of about 176 pounds,” he wrote. “It wasn’t just one operation, but various. Initially it wasn’t successful and had a bearing on my prolonged recuperation.”
He added that the greatest dangers to him now are age and the effects of not taking care of his health for years.
Castro shocked Cuba in July when he announced he had undergone intestinal surgery and was ceding power to his 75-year-old brother Raul, the defense minister. Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since then and his condition and exact ailment have been state secrets. Top officials have insisted that he is recuperating steadily.
The written statement was e-mailed to The Associated Press by Cuba’s foreign ministry. It will likely appear tomorrow on newspaper front pages and be read on the TV news.
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Such a teaser story. No other news. This is the full length of the news story.
Thoughts?
To me, still just an old man writing letters.
If he shows up on TV I will rethink my predictions of his mental, physical and political health. But, until that time I will stay with my feelings that he is out of the picture permanently.
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A little more from the AP
“I don’t have time now for films and photos that require me to constantly cut my hair, beard and mustache, and get spruced up every day,” he said, evidently referring to the preparation required for some of the official images.
...meaning “Don’t expect to see me alive again”
“For now, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, reflecting and writing about questions that I judge of certain importance and transcendence,” the latest one said. “I have a lot more material to go.”
...meaning “I am writing a lot of letters that will be published long after I am dead so 1. I never appear dead and 2. I can still rant on after I’m dead”
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Fidel can’t get someone to cut his hair and layout his clothes for him?
Man, things really are bad in Cuba!
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Copied from granma.cu
I shall digress now to tackle a topic which deals with my person, and I ask for your indulgence.
The news dispatches talk of an operation. My compatriots were not too happy that I explained on more than one occasion that my recovery would not be without its risks. Generally speaking, there was talk about a date when I would make a public appearance, dressed in my olive green fatigues as usual. Well then, it was not just one operation but several. Initially, it was not successful and this implicated a prolonged recovery period.
For many months, I relied on intravenous procedures and catheters for the greater part of my nutrition, and I wanted to spare our people an unpleasant disappointment. Today I receive everything required by my recovery orally. There is no danger greater than that related to age and to a state of health which I abused during some of the hazardous times I lived through. Nowadays I do what I should be doing, especially reflecting and writing about issues which, to my mind, have some importance and transcendence. I have a lot pending. For the present, I do not have time for films and photos that require me to constantly trim my hair, beard and moustache, and to get dressed up every day. Moreover, such presentations multiply requests for interviews. Let me simply say to everyone that my health has been improving and my weight is stable at around 80 kilos.
I try to keep the reflections as brief as possible so as not to take much space from the press and television news programs. The rest of the time I am reading, receiving information, talking on the phone with many comrades and carrying out the rehabilitation exercises that are necessary for my recovery. I cannot say or criticize everything that I know, because if I did so, human and international relations would be impossible, and our country cannot do without them. But I shall be true to the motto of never writing a lie.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 23, 2007.
5:06 p.m.
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“I have a lot pending. For the present, I do not have time for films and photos that require me to constantly trim my hair, beard and moustache, and to get dressed up every day. Moreover, such presentations multiply requests for interviews.”
If absent President Fidel Castro does not have time to cut his hair and get dressed in the morning and if said “presentations” multiply requests for interviews, I DOUBT that he will be returning to work anytime soon.
Where is the main stream media on that point?
How come NO ONE is questioning his ability to return to work if he can’t even trim his beard and get dressed in the morning?
Isn’t this Fidel’s way of saying “Don’t expect to see me in public any time soon and certainly don’t expect me to come back to work”?
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He ain’t coming back.
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