UPDATE 1-Castro turns 79 on the job, no plans to retire
Thu Aug 11, 2005
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro turns 79 on Saturday with no plans for retirement at the helm of the Western Hemisphere's only Communist state.
The world's longest serving head of government is busy repairing Cuba's battered socialist economy.
Castro says he is "perfecting" the egalitarian society he began to build after he and his bearded guerrillas ousted U.S. backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and seized power in 1959.
The aging leader's pace has slowed in recent years, but he continues to give marathon four- to five-hour speeches denouncing U.S. imperialist aggression to staunch supporters who sing the Marxist Internationale anthem when he is done.
His rambling addresses are crammed with statistics and minutiae on all aspects of a nation he has micro-managed for over four decades.
When Hurricane Dennis roared into Cuba last month, Castro showed up at a television studio to monitor the storm's path of death and destruction in a live broadcast to the nation.
Dressed in his trademark military uniform, the "Comandante" has taken to the stage like a television game show host to tout the bounties of new pressure cookers and Chinese-made electrical appliances he has promised Cubans.
"If I have lived many years, that's because I played a lot of sport. I climbed mountains, which is good for the heart," he said on Monday. "It is the Olympics of history that matter, and there we will take the gold medal," he said in a speech to physical education graduates.
Last October, Castro tripped and shattered his knee in a fall that was broadcast live on television. To the chagrin of his opponents, he was back on his feet within two months dispelling speculation that he would have to cut back his leadership role.
Castro's bitterest enemies, mainly right-wing exiles living in Miami, see Cuba as a gulag run by an autocrat who impoverished Cuba's 11 million people, restricts their right to leave the island and suppresses dissent.
Only 14 of the 75 pro-democracy activists jailed in a March 2003 crackdown have been released, and 15 more dissidents were arrested last month during a series of peaceful protests.
In Washington, when asked whether he had any messages for Castro on his birthday, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said: "The people of Cuba deserve democratic leadership on every day of the year."
HOT SUMMER
The hottest weather in years, aggravated by long power outages caused by breakdowns in Cuba's obsolete generators, brought a wave of complaints and rare anti-Castro graffiti on Havana walls this summer.
Cuba has suffered severe economic shortages since it lost billions of dollars in subsidies when Soviet Communism collapsed in 1991 plunging the island into dire straits. Western diplomats say the economy has been defying gravity ever since.
But Castro is optimistic about recovery. He recently declared the so-called "special period" of post-Soviet economic crisis all but over and forecast 9 percent growth in output for the year.
For two years, Castro has been retrenching state control over the Cuban economy and doing away with small pockets of private enterprise permitted during the 1990s.
Castro's closest ally, Venezuela's populist President Hugo Chavez, has provided a crucial economic lifeline through generous supplies of oil which Cuba is paying for in medical services.
New credits from China have also helped Cuba weather a cash crunch that Havana blames on the U.S. "blockade" or sanctions applied by Washington since 1962 to undermine Castro.
While some Cuba watchers say Castro is fighting against all odds to preserve his political legacy, others see a practical politician managing an economy that is rebounding.
"Far from being a mystical Quixotic figure pursuing a noble mirage, Fidel Castro is a driven pragmatist whose headlights are always on 'full beam'," said Canadian historian John Kirk.
"He looks forward with a depth of vision that is remarkable, which is why Washington has spent 46 fruitless years pursuing 'regime change'," said Kirk, professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Some think Castro's drive to perpetuate communism is losing ground among Cubans, 70 percent of whom were born after his revolution began.
"Castro wants to guarantee the continuation of the socialist system after his death," said Daniel Erikson, Caribbean director at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.
"Yet he knows that the Cuban people, and even members of his government, have lost faith and are ready for change," he said.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.