Chavez to mark Castro's 80th birthday with a visit

[norml]

Chavez to mark Castro's 80th birthday with a visit
Ailing dictator reported to be walking, talking and sitting up

By GARY MARX
Chicago Tribune


Hugo Chavez
GREGORIO MARRERO: AP

HAVANA — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he would fly to Cuba to celebrate Fidel Castro's 80th birthday today with the ailing leader.

The announcement came the same day that the Cuban Communist Party newspaper gave the most upbeat assessment of Castro's health since the leader announced July 31 that he had undergone surgery and temporarily ceded power to his younger brother, Raul, the defense minister.

The front-page article in the newspaper Granma said Castro is walking, talking and sitting up, as well as undergoing physical therapy.

"A friend tells us that just a few hours ago, upon visiting the Comandante, who was briefly taking care of some business, he witnessed some good news that he enthusiastically summed up in one sentence: 'The caguairan has risen,' " the Granma report began.

The friend was not identified in the article.


snip


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/us/13inmates.html?hp&ex=1155528000&en=bb628469b5261e73&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Cha]

1. Castro is 80 and I'm

62 today! How fun to share a birthday with El Commedante:)

[Judi Lynn]

2. Raul Castro receives Hugo Chavez in Cuba

Raul Castro receives Hugo Chavez in Cuba
Sun Aug 13, 2006 2:12pm ET

HAVANA (Reuters) - Acting Cuban President Raul Castro appeared in public for the first time on Sunday, receiving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Cuban state television images showed.

Chavez arrived in Havana to visit his political ally Fidel Castro on his 80th birthday. The Cuban leader relinquished power to his younger brother Raul on July 31 due to stomach surgery.
(snip/)

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-13T181200Z_01_N13232306_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUBA-CASTRO-RAUL.xml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chavez welcomed to Cuba
From correspondents in Havana
August 14, 2006
RAUL Castro, newly at the helm of communist Cuba as his brother recovers from surgery, today welcomed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Cuba to celebrate Fidel Castro's 80th birthday.

Cuban state television showed Raul Castro, 75, in a warm embrace with the leftist Venezuelan leader who is Cuba's staunchest international ally.

It was the first time Raul Castro was seen since his brother handed Cuba's leadership to him on July 31 officially if temporarily for the first time in almost 48 years.
(snip/)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20118973-23109,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CASTRO AT 80
Is Hugo Chavez Cuba's Kingmaker?
Once, the U.S. thought Venezuela's president was Castro's creation. Now Chavez holds the key to Cuba's future.
By Daniel P. Erikson, DANIEL P. ERIKSON is senior associate for U.S. policy at the Inter-American Dialogue. He is co-editor of "Transforming Socialist Economies: Lessons for Cuba and Beyond."
August 13, 2006


JUST DAYS before Fidel Castro's ailing health grabbed world headlines, the Cuban leader was Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's surprise guest at a South American summit in Argentina. The two leaders traveled to the boyhood home of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the revolutionary icon. Chavez appeared moved by the visit. "For me," he said, "it is truly an honor to be here, walking through history." But Chavez has already joined Che where it counts most — on billboards in Havana, where the Cuban government lauds its heroes.

Chavez is indeed a hero in Cuba, especially to its longtime leader. Over the last seven years, he has become Castro's key economic benefactor and political partner. That relationship has stirred concern among U.S. policymakers that Chavez might meddle in the post-Castro transition.

There's no question that he has sufficient leverage in Cuba to potentially influence the choice of the island's next leader — and his blessing will certainly be crucial to the next Cuban government's success or failure. Whether he will wield his influence is unknown, and Cuba, of course, is a sovereign nation. But Washington's worry that he will clearly reverses the conventional wisdom of only a few years ago, when the Venezuelan leader was seen as a creation of Castro.

The sources of Chavez's potential leverage in Cuba's transition are multiple. The most important is the "oil for services" pact that he and Castro signed in October 2000 and that continues to expand.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-erikson13aug13,0,3202395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

[Mika]

3. I just saw vid of Raul greeting Hugo on local Miami TV

They gave each other a big hug at the airport. I am pretty sure I could read Hugo's lips as he asked Raul "how is my friend, your brother?". Raul responded "he is good".

Then local Ch 7 cut to some Miami exiles who are all saying that the pics of Castro are obviously faked. :rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

5. You're right. Those guys are big on denial.

Like you, I remember their strange insistance that something had been done to drug Elián and subdue him, and that the boy we were seeing in photographs with Juan Miguel, his father, was some other kid!

Their proof was that the kid's hair was much longer than Elián's hair. Hmmmm. Elián, whom they had just seen the previous day.

[Mika]

6. First Castro is dead, now the pics are faked. What next?

I guess that they'll soon be saying that old Fidel has numerous body doubles. :crazy:


At what point does America stop believing the squirming lying cretinous gusanos*.



*-note: only a small vocal minority of Miami's Cuban expatriates are squirming lying cretinous gusanos.

[Say_What]

10. Great pix, Mika!!

Thanks for posting! :bounce:

On edit: Oops, I was referring to the pix on the Fidel's B'Day thread. :yourock:

[Vidar]

4. All the best to both of them.

[Yupster]

7. I hope Chavez doesn't change the Venezuelan

Constitution to eliminate term limits.

I really don't like this President for Life stuff. Hopefully it was just a threat.

[1932]

13. There's no mechanism in the constitution allowing Chavez to change the

term limits.

However, the constitutions does allow amendments through a national referendum procedure.

I can't imagine anyone having a problem if Venezuelans chose for themselves in a free and fair election to remove term limits.

[brentspeak]

8. Castro to celebrate by freeing one of his political prisoners

for fifteen minutes. Then, it's back to the labor camp.

[Mika]

9. No labor camps in Cuba. That's in China, where products Americans buy..

.. are made.

Now if Cuba did have labor camps making cheap electronics, shoes, toys, etc., then I bet Cuba would be a most favored nation in trade w/the USA and Americans would flock to buy Cuba's slave-made crap.

But, alas for big biz, its not the case.. yet. The US's 'Cuba Transition Plan' is designed just for making the alterations required to change all of that.

[Say_What]

11. More celebration pix from Cuba...

People attend a concert in honor of Cuba's President Fidel Castro in Havana August 12, 2006. (Enrique De La Osa - CUBA/Reuters)


A man holds up a photograph of revolutionary hero Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and Cuban leader Fidel Castro during a concert in honor of Castro in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Aug.12, 2006. An ailing Fidel Castro turns 80 on Sunday amid official reports he is walking and talking again, and with his closest ally in Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, headed to Havana to visit his close friend and political ally in Havana. (AP Photo/ Javier Galeano)


This image from a broadcast on Cuban television station Cubavision shows Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, greeting interim president and Fidel Castro's younger brother Raul upon his arrival at the Havana, Cuba airport on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2006. Chavez is in Cuba to celebrate Fidel Castro's birthday. (AP Photo/Cubavision via AP Television News)


Cuban doctors hold a banner to congratulate Cuba's President Fidel Castro during a ceremony in Caranavi village, some 156 km (97 miles) north of La Paz, August 13, 2006. Bolivia's President Evo Morales visited Caranavi to inaugurate the re-opening of a local hospital which was renovated with support of the Cuban government. The banner reads 'Congratulations Commander in his 80th aniversary.' REUTERS/Jose Luis Quintana (BOLIVIA)


A Nicaraguan child attends an event to celebrate the 80th birthday of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Managua August 13, 2006. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas (NICARAGUA)

[Judi Lynn]

12. Great photos! It's a bad day for right-wingers, however.

Their bogus speculations have been repudiated twice with photos out of both the brothers. Since they got more publicity this time than in the past, they look stupid to a far larger group of normal people.

Interesting seeing they are celebrating the guy's birthday in other countries, isn't it?

The people in Cuban crowd photos are always very interesting. You notice they do look somewhat serious in the second one, don't they? You'd be tempted to say they really care about their Commandante.

[Say_What]

14. I just love it when the MiamiGusanos

make such fools of themselves!! :smoke: