No Castro, but Lots of Speculation
Parade in Cuba Draws Thousands Hoping to See Ailing Leader
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Sunday, December 3, 2006
HAVANA, Dec. 2 -- Cubans woke before dawn Saturday and walked miles for a chance to be near Fidel Castro.
There were no guarantees that the Cuban president, who had been absent from public view for more than four months since undergoing stomach surgery, would surface. Just rumors and whispers, whispers and rumors.
The sounds of Havana wrestling with its greatest modern mystery trickled out of faded doorways and clattered off the chipped facades of this gracefully decaying capital.
"He's getting better."
"He's dead."
"Nobody knows."
It went like that all morning, as hundreds of thousands of Cubans ringed the concrete Plaza de la Revolucion for this country's largest military parade in decades. And it went like that long after the last missile launchers and tanks cut smoky paths down the 20th of May Avenue.
The man they had all come to see never showed up. Castro remained hidden away, his illness shrouded in mystery, his whereabouts a jealously guarded state secret.
"We're all wondering what's happening; it's all we talk about," said Angel Gutiérrez, a graphic artist who watched the event on television in his home along the parade route, as a half-dozen police officers crowded his doorway to catch a glimpse of the coverage. "Whatever it is, it's bad."
Those in the crowd, waving thousands of Cuban flags attached to splintery poles, got no clues from Castro's handpicked interim successor, his younger brother Raúl. Appearing in a green military uniform and a cap, Raúl Castro, 75, said Cuba was willing to use "the negotiating table" to improve relations with the United States. But he said little about his brother, other than "Viva Fidel!" -- Long live Fidel!
Many Cubans expected the uncertainty about Fidel Castro to be cleared up Saturday. But the day ended with more confusion.
The president temporarily relinquished power for the first time in 47 years after his surgery on July 31. The Cuban government canceled a blowout party planned for Aug. 13, his 80th birthday, but set Dec. 2 as the date for his triumphant return. It was to have been both a commemoration of the Cuban revolution's 50th anniversary and a belated birthday celebration.
