Looks like there’s quite a bit of successioning and transitioning going around. Here’s the latest from CNN:
Venezuela: Castro recovery ‘advancing positively’
Illness forces Cuban leader to cede power temporarily to brother
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Posted: 4:27 p.m. EDT (20:27 GMT)HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — Cuban President Fidel Castro’s recuperation “is advancing positively,” Venezuela’s government said Tuesday, citing Cuban authorities a day after the communist leader temporarily handed power to his brother due to intestinal surgery.
You can read the pathetic brown nosing here.
Maybe I was wrong, maybe it aint all about the timing, but about the headline.
I hope this is not true.
well there goes another emotional rollercoaster!
The only promising thing is that we know his health is that bad and that the doctors can only prolong him for the near term. He is in bad shape and wilting. I am hoping the chavez is telling a lie, but I’m not sure that would be politically expedient unless it is insurance against a change.
I think it’s all about the source–what the heck, bulletins on Castro’s health are coming from Caracas? In a way I suppose it makes sense since all the Cuban doctors are there.
“Cuba’s official media and government representatives, reacting to speculation about Fidel Castro’s prognosis after a serious operation, said Tuesday afternoon that his recovery was underway and his demise was in no way imminent.” from the Miami Herlad
AaahhRRRGGGG!!!!! These people are incurable: they spice up the piece with a photograph of the modern Cuban mode of transportation (common circa 1890), captioned with how the beast ruled Cuba with a “firm hard” …… and the usual billboard in the background — what media whores!
How UTTERLY REVOLTING they are!!!
Hey folks,
next time lets wait till we see pictures of the body. I can’t handle another rumor letdown. He has to be eating this up if he is alive. I can just hear him now. Well at least we know its inevitable. Thats my only consolation.
Not only that but there was just outright lame and sloppy copyediting all around (my personal peeve, as you know. . .)
yeah, there was like a noon CNN story that reported the hand-off and then a separate story, posted to the web THREE FULL HOURS LATER, criticizing Bush’s Free Cuba Panel (report issued over a month ago!) that actually speculated as to whether castro would ever think of handing off power, even in a possible health crisis.
uh. . . do they read their own stuff? apparently not. pretty stupid and lazy if you ask me.
Look folks,
Castro has had a series of small strokes these last few years, as a result, he’s been taking blood thinning medication to prevent blood clots to form. Is it any wonder that he was bleeding profusely? Chances are he bled to death during surgery.
If he survives this, I want the name of his Babalao…
Yes, for all the sheeeeple out there who rely upon the Mainstream Media- it’s Dr. Che Guevara (Associated Press) and Fidel Castro, Attorney @ Law (CNN).
Just another instance of “objective” journalism, courtesy of the Mainstream Media….
An interesting piece from today’s WSJ Best of the Web:
——————————–
BY JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, August 1, 2006 3:17 p.m. EDT
Better Dead Than Red
So this is what communism comes down to: a feeble near-octogenarian dictator lying in a hospital bed, bleeding from an unmentionable part of his digestive tract. As Reuters reports, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has “stepped down temporarily . . . handing over power for the first time” to Crown Prince Raul Castro:
[Fidel] Castro, who will be 80 on August 13, said in a statement read out on television that he overexerted himself this month on a trip to a summit of South American leaders in Argentina and celebrations of his 1953 assault on a military garrison.
“This caused an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obliged me to face a complicated surgical operation,” he said in the “proclamation” read out by his personal aide Carlos Valenciaga.
“The operation obliges me to remain for several weeks resting, away from my responsibilities and duties,” it said.
Now of course Castro is merely going the way of all flesh, but this apparently is a surprise to some of his enthusiasts among Western journalists. The Associated Press “reports” that the Cuban people are morons who had no idea Castro was mortal until recently:
Talk of Castro’s mortality was taboo until June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun. Although Castro quickly recovered, many Cubans understood for the first time that their leader would eventually die.
Reuters, too, is impressed with the emperor’s elegant clothes:
The left-wing leader has enjoyed a revival in international support. . . . Castro is admired in many Third World nations for standing up to the United States and providing free education and health care. He has won friends. . . . Castro was greeted by crowds like a rock star. . . . Anti-globalization youths see him as a hero. . . .
Yet, at home critics say Castro has subjected Cuba’s 11 million people to collectivized poverty in a police state.
Yeah, well, nobody’s perfect. In his statement, Castro vows to “fight until the last drop of blood.” We will be keeping an eye on his condition. May it stabilize soon.
This Just In
“Castro Relationship With U.S. Has Long Been Rocky”–headline, CNN.com, Aug. 1
Um, where is the supposed “brown nosing” in that CNN article? Honestly, I don’t see it. In fact what I read was: 1) a synopsis of what little facts exist surrounding last night’s events 2) the reaction in the exile community 3) dubya’s reaction and 4) a synopsis on US-Cuba relations. They also quote Mel Martinez as raising suspicion that he might already be dead. Again, where is the brown nosing? Remember, this isn’t an op-ed piece.
Digitalcubano,
Gee. I dont know. Perhaps you missed the point of my blogpost altogether.
From personal experience, I can say how easy it is for some Western journalists and academics to fall into the trap of believing that Cuba has one of the best health care systems in Latin America, their educational system is phenomenal, etc. It’s so easy to draw that conclusion unless you’ve lived and breathed with Cubans themselves.
And AcademicElephant is right–Castro has sent Cuba’s best doctors and medicine to Venezuela instead of to his own people.
Well, I must have because I haven’t seen any so-called “brown nosing” over at CNN.com. Where is it?
We all know he’s not dead…
just resting…
2 things..either He is getting well (Doubt it) or The Cuban Government are covering it up. The latter seems more likely since that’s after all what they’re good at.
But if he is “advancing positively,” doesn’t that translate to “not quite dead yet?”
It can’t happen soon enough. Castro is one of the last vestiges of the inhuman evils of the 20th Century. When he leaves this earthly plane, he will improve its humanity by his absence. It will be our good fortune, and Hell’s bad luck.
He’s not resting, he’s passed on! This dictator is no more! He has ceased to be! He’s expired and gone to meet his maker!
He’s a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! He’s pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He’s off the twig!
He’s kicked the bucket, He’s shuffled off. He is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisibile!!
THIS IS AN EX-DICTATOR!!