Two weeks after Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery and temporarily ceded power, his illness, treatment and prognosis are a closely guarded secret.
Unlike in the U.S. and many other nations, where the medical condition of a president would be detailed in news conferences and hashed out on cable news talk shows, Cubans and the rest of the world have been left largely in the dark about the ailing, 80-year-old leader.
Several Cuban officials have said Castro is improving, and three brief statements attributed to Castro said he is on the mend. But over the weekend, Castro also warned Cubans of grave risks ahead and said they should prepare themselves for “adverse news.”
One Havana-based diplomat said she was not convinced Castro is alive until four photos of him were published Sunday in the Communist Party youth daily Juventud Rebelde. They were the first images of Castro since the July 31 announcement that he underwent surgery.
But it is eight new photos published in Monday’s edition of Granma, the official Cuban Communist Party newspaper, that provide the most information about the state of Castro’s health and what might be happening in his inner circle, according to diplomats.
The photographs were taken during a three-hour meeting Sunday of Castro, his younger brother, Raul, who is the acting president, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a key Cuban ally who is providing well over $1 billion in economic assistance to the island nation.
Cuba’s state-run television Monday broadcast a five-minute video of the encounter, showing a bedridden Castro exchanging small talk and joking with Chavez and his brother in a sparsely furnished room.
Castro looked weak but alert as he listened to Chavez recall the moment he first learned his friend and ally had undergone surgery. “That was a horrible day,” Chavez said.
The two men held hands frequently, shared a snack and paged through an album of photographs showing them together, but Castro spoke little during the meeting.
Newspaper is Castro’s word
Castro is said to approve the front page of every Granma, and the messages in the tabloid are considered vital in a nation where the government maintains a tight grip on information, diplomats said.
“Everything in Granma is there for a reason,” said one Havana-based diplomat. “The pictures don’t tell us much, but they are the only thing we’ve had to go on for two weeks.”
Another Havana-based diplomat compared Cuba today to the former Soviet Union, where Soviet experts starved for information would review the lineup of leaders on the dais during Moscow’s annual May Day celebration looking for clues to any power shakeup.
“Remember when they used to look to see who was closest to the Soviet general secretary?” said the second diplomat. “Here, we are trying to learn things through picture analysis of Granma.”
The first thing the diplomats noticed in the photos is that Castro is reclining in bed. That tells them the Cuban leader was too weak to sit up and, by inference, that he is seriously ill.
But there is not a single medical apparatus in the photographs, not an IV, a bottle of medicine, nothing. The diplomats said Castro is sending a message that he remains strong.
Castro also is pictured smiling, chatting amiably with Chavez and taking notes. Near Castro’s bed sits a radio, a telephone and a reading lamp.
“The whole thing is to make us think that he is in touch,” the second diplomat said.
Two of the three photographs on Granma’s front page also show Chavez and Raul Castro smiling, and in one they are embracing. The shots are meant to dispel the notion the two men don’t get along, while reassuring Cubans the nation’s vital link with Venezuela would survive even if Fidel Castro doesn’t.
The diplomats agreed the overall message of the photos is that Castro still is in charge, it’s business as usual and the revolution will survive.
Reassurance and doubts
More Top Picks Best Weighted Blankets For Adhd
Cubans had mixed reactions to the snapshots.
“You can just feel the brotherhood between Fidel and Chavez,” said Alfonso Gonzalez, 47, paging through Granma as he sat on a park bench in the Havana suburb of Miramar. “Hugo Chavez is a friend of Cuba and especially Fidel.”
While several Cubans expressed shock to see Castro bedridden, Gonzalez said he is certain Castro would fully recuperate and “live to be 100 years old.”
But across town, in the Nuevo Vedado neighborhood, one 29-year-old Cuban said he wasn’t even sure the photographs are real or that Castro is still alive.
“It could be a montage. It could be a double,” said the man, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution.
“Why not? All of this is false,” he said, pointing to the newspaper. “The message is that all is real good, but the reality is different.”
———-