Fidel Castro turns up in full olive green uniform

[El Presidente]

Just when momentum gathers pace for the embargo barriers to come down....Fidel has come back to his most active

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Fidel Castro turns up in full olive green uniform

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/03/1807...et_type=gallery

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

[email protected]

Cuba's Fidel Castro, reprising symbols of his former power, wore a full military uniform and spoke to a mass audience outdoors Friday for the first time since he nearly died four years ago.

The island's former ruler seemed energetic and lucid as he spoke for 35 minutes to several thousand students from the historic steps of the University of Havana in an address broadcast by all the state channels.

As he has done in his many public appearances since early July, the 84-year-old Castro repeated his warnings of nuclear holocaust over Iran and stayed away from commenting on Cuba's domestic issues.

But his appearance marked a return of two of the symbols of his nearly five decades as Cuba's ruler, which he had put aside after an emergency intestinal surgery left him at death's door four years ago.

For the first time since 2006, he wore olive green pants, jacket and cap -- though without any insignias of rank -- and appeared before the kind of massive outdoor crowds that were trademarks of his rule.

He wore glasses to read his prepared text but was introduced as comandante en jefe instead of compañero, the title most often used for Castro over the past four years.

The twin firsts fueled speculation that Castro is trying to regain some of his former powers, which he turned over unofficially to his 79-year old brother Raúl in 2006. Parliament selected Raúl as head of the government in 2008.

``This is all a pantomime that he has mounted to show he's immortal,'' said Vladimiro Roca, a Havana dissident and former member of the ruling Communist Party and MiG pilot in the Cuban air force.

Dissident Martha Beatriz Roque noted that while Castro remains first secretary of the party, a report on Cuban TV on Friday initially refered to Raúl as second secretary and only later as head of the government.

During the four years recovering from his surgery, Castro appeared mostly in jogging suits, then more recently in civilian clothes. But this summer he began returning to his traditional olive green, first with just a shirt and then a jacket but until now without a cap.

His appearances were generally restricted to photos of videos of his private meetings with foreign leaders visiting Cuba. But starting July 7, he has visited scientific and economic think tanks, and last month delivered a speech to an official gathering of Cuba's parliament.

Castro has now declared himself ``totally recovered'' and told a Mexican newspaper in an interview published this week that he was ``resuscitated'' -- without clarifying the exact nature of his health crisis or whether he was actually clinically dead at some point.

Castro told his audience Friday, overwhelmingly made up of university students, that time is running out on his efforts to avert a nuclear war over Iran, allegedly trying to develop atomic weapons.

``The time left for humanity to wage this battle is incredibly limited,'' he declared during the 7:30 a.m. event, apparently timed to avoid the worst of the summer's hot sun.

He noted that the United States is the only country that has used nuclear weapons -- against Japan at the end of World War II -- and that modern nuclear weapons are far more powerful than those.

``The hard duty of warning humanity about the real danger that it is confronting has fallen to Cuba,'' he added, urging the students to fight for peace ``so that human life can be preserved.''

Castro delivered the speech from a podium set up just below the statue of the Alma Mater, which dominates that stone steps leading up to the University of Havana, where Castro studied law in the 1950s.

Before Castro seized power in 1959, many anti-government protesters gathered on the steps because police were barred from entering the campus. Afterwards, Castro abolished the university's autonomy.

Five dissidents were arrested on the steps Aug. 16 after they read an anti-government declaration. Two were released later, but the others remain in jail amid reports they will be charged with public disorder.

Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz said the protest was the first he could recall on that iconic location since the early 1960s.

[ColKurtz]

Just when momentum gathers pace for the embargo barriers to come down....Fidel has come back to his most active

....

That's the strategy. No meaningful movements. Wait out ol' Grim Reaper and let nature reclaim them.... Florida seems to be a political hot potato that no politician is willing to upset.

Cheers!