Castro Says Reports Of His Death Greatly Exaggerated Cuban Leader Insists His Revolution Will Live On Without Him
President Fidel Castro, responding to recent rumors of his death, appeared in public for the first time in nearly a month to deliver a blistering 45-minute speech in a driving rainstorm.
His olive military uniform drenched, beads of water collecting in his beard, Castro, who turned 71 last month, used a ceremony celebrating the first day of school Monday to say “adios to the imperialists” who believe that the 38-year-old Cuban revolution will die with him.
“Whatever happens happens, and whoever falls will fall, and whoever dies will die - some of us, they even try to kill off regularly,” said Castro, drawing laughter to the frequent rumors of his death. “We won’t even be bothered responding. All of us have to die.”
“Among the people there are many revolutionaries potentially better than any of us,” he added. “This is what life teaches us. This is what history teaches us. And what we have done, the story of the revolution, we will defend until our last breath, until our last minute. We will defend our ideas, our just cause, our socialism, our fatherland.”
Like a global brushfire, rumors spread through Miami, Havana, Washington and parts of Latin America last Wednesday that Castro had died. Although the Cuban government denied the rumors a day later, they added to recent speculation that the president had been camouflaging an illness.
Before Monday, Castro had not made a public appearance since Aug. 5, when he attended the closing ceremonies of an international youth festival. He declined to speak despite pleas from the audience, and some observers described him as thin and distracted. Some diplomats speculated he had suffered a stroke.
“Everyone believes what I believe, that the man is in bad shape,” said one Cuban after watching Castro’s speech on state-run television.
Castro appeared intent Monday on disspelling rumors he is ill. Wearing his trademark military fatigues in 90-degree heat, Castro sat through the first hour of the ceremony, then surprised the crowd by delivering the closing speech.
After warming up, Castro was at full volume when the rain began, first in showers, then in a deluge. Laughing as water streamed off his cap, he continued to speak while the crowd listened. At one point a woman sitting behind him emptied water from her shoes.
Except for his remarks about his death, Castro’s message was one he has frequently repeated. He said successes in the revolution, particularly the system of free education for all, had survived despite the hardships caused by the 35-year-old U.S. trade embargo.
“Our teachers and professors have demonstrated the value of the human factor, because all of this has occurred in the middle of this horrendous, repugnant, criminal, genocidal blockade,” he shouted. “What other country has accomplished what we have accomplished in the middle of the 35 years of this brutal blockade?”
“They hope that when the generation that began the revolution disappears, all will change, that someday all these ideas will disappear - these values, these works, as they have disappeared, sadly and terribly, in other countries,” he said. “They do not know that when this generation disappears, others will follow.”