Castro grip firm as Cuba’s revolution turns 50

By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – December 20, 2008

HAVANA (AP) _ In the palace of a fallen dictator, the grade-school kids in their red Communist Pioneer bandanas are getting their mandatory introduction to the glories of the revolution.

Clattering from one display case to the next, they gaze wide-eyed at an antique gun, a fighter’s bloodied shirt, the engine of a downed U.S. spy plane. Moving on, they stare at the yacht named Granma that carried Fidel Castro back from exile to launch his guerrilla war, and the combat boots his brother-successor wore as a ponytailed 27-year-old rebel.

The palace of Fulgencio Batista, the ruler whom Castro overthrew, is now the Museum of the Revolution, and these 6- and 7-year-olds are the heirs to a communist government about to turn 50 _ a system that may be softening at the edges but appears determined to crush any threat to its grip on power, lest it crumble like its one-time godfather, the Soviet Union.

Castro temporarily cedes power to brother for surgery; condition ‘advancing positively’

By ANITA SNOW – Associated Press – August 01, 2006

HAVANA (AP) _ Fidel Castro, who has wielded absolute power over Cuba and defied the United States for nearly a half century, was recovering from intestinal surgery Tuesday, his allies said, after temporarily turning over authority to his brother Raul.

The Venezuelan government said Fidel Castro’s recovery was “advancing positively” after surgery, citing information from the island’s government without providing details. A leftist Argentine lawmaker said Castro aides told him the surgery was successful and that Castro was resting peacefully.

The surprise announcement that Castro had been operated on to repair a “sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding” stunned Cubans on the island and in exile, and marked the first time that Castro, two weeks away from 80th birthday, had relinquished power in 47 years of rule.