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Cubans celebrate as Castro turns 81
Updated: 2007-08-14 06:53
Fireworks exploded over Havana Bay as ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro
turned 81 yesterday, spending his second consecutive birthday
convalescing at an unknown location.
"Today we celebrate one more anniversary of the birthday of our Commander
in Chief Fidel Castro, who turned 81 and who will continue celebrating
many more birthdays with Cuba and the world," Havana resident Rosa Maria
Suarez said in the early hours of yesterday.
She and hundreds of others stood on the Malecon sea front just after
midnight to watch the fireworks marking Castro's birthday and the end of
Havana's annual summer carnival.
"He's celebrating with his family at home, but it's as if he were with us
here," said student Irane Neskaye, also watching the colorful
pyrotechnics show popping over the bay with the skyline of Havana's
Cabana Fortress in the background.
Shouts of "Long live Fidel!" and "We shall overcome!" could be heard
coming from the open windows of an apartment in Old Havana.
Two documentaries about the bearded revolutionary's life were scheduled
to air on state television early Monday evening.
From prisons in the United States, five Cuban agents serving long terms
on espionage related charges sent greetings of their own, which were
published on yesterday's Communist Party newspaper Granma.
"On this 81st birthday, we desire for you health and vitality, that you
have many more, and that we can celebrate all those future anniversaries
together in our beautiful fatherland," wrote Ramon Labanino, one of the
so-called "Cuban Five" who were living in Miami a decade ago when they
were arrested on espionage charges.
The men deny they were seeking US secrets and say they were gathering
information about violent groups in an effort to prevent terrorist
attacks against the island.
No major public celebrations of Castro's birthday were announced, and
there was no expectation that he would make a public appearance more than
a year after he announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery
and was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul, who is now 76.
Even when well, Castro traditionally has celebrated his birthday in a
low-key manner, often simply sharing a cake with Cuban school children.
Agencies
(China Daily 08/14/2007 page7)
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