Is Castro Already Dead?

[Brown]

Here is an MSNBC report, typical of reports running around the wire services, that Fidel Castro is gravely ill.

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has had at least three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection and faces “a very grave prognosis,” a Spanish newspaper reported Tuesday.

A Cuban diplomat in Madrid said the reports were lies and declined to comment.

One way the reports could be lies is if Castro were dead, rather than seriously ill.

It is not beyond comprehension that Castro's death would be covered up, at least until decisions could be made about how to break the news to the world in general and to Cubans in particular. I make no claim on the matter one way or another. I merely point out that we've seen this pattern before.

 

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

It's likely the Cuban government will be less than forthcoming when President Castro does pass away (and perhaps he has already died). His death means Cuba will change. Depending on his successor, it could be positive change, with a normalisation of relations with the United States, increased tourism, a move to a more open economy, and lowered unemployment rates. I can't really be sure how the general populace in Cuba would react to news of their leader's death.

It is true that there does seem to be a pattern regarding these flat denials by official spokespeople, regardless of who they're speaking for. If a celebrity couple's publicist says they've never been happier, you know they're dusting off the prenuptual agreement. If a sports team's management gives the coaching staff a steadfast public endorsement, they're probably already interviewing the replacements.

 

[steverino]

they're probably already interviewing the replacements.

Obama would be a good candidate down there.

 

[Rob Lister]

I think this all indicates that regardless of his continued existence or not, his continued control has, for all time, ceased. Another is now in charge and setting the stage for takeover. We may not hear of it officially until such time as the facts of the matter can, for whatever reasons, no longer be suppressed. BTW, I've no doubt this other is his brother; were it someone else, we'd already know. As such, nothing [politically or diplomatically] will change until his position is very well-secured. Even then, very little will change very quickly. His replacement is by no means an new-comer, and every change he makes possible will come about only if he feels it strengthens his power-hold.

As much as it saddens me, this is the best move possible (assuming I have my analysis correct). Fact is, Cuba could [once again] be a [trillion-dollar] mecca-money-maker in terms of tourist and import/export dollars, but that does nothing for -- and might even be a negative to -- the new HMFIC, just as it was to the now defunct one.

 

[Elizabeth I]

Is Castro already dead?

We can only hope.

 

[webfusion]

The clue:

"grave" prognosis.

 

[Tony]

Obama would be a good candidate down there.

Bush would fit in much better.

Castro's death will signal a great change indeed, he remains ones of the last vestiges of the cold war.

 

[dann]

(...) and lowered unemployment rates. (...)

???

 

[Zep]

They are probably playing paper-rock-scissors to see who has to take the top job. I suspect whoever gets it will be compared to Castro and rapidly be found utterly wanting, leading to either a series of palace coups, or the decline and fall of Cuba as we know it today (i.e. even further down the chute than it is now).

 

[dann]

You mean as far down the chute as other Latin American countries? I hope not!

 

[Architect]

They are probably playing paper-rock-scissors to see who has to take the top job. I suspect whoever gets it will be compared to Castro and rapidly be found utterly wanting, leading to either a series of palace coups, or the decline and fall of Cuba as we know it today (i.e. even further down the chute than it is now).

Look out, that's getting close to a conspiracy theory!

 

[ponderingturtle]

I don't see how this makes much sense. He has been ill for long enough for people to consolidate their power in a new administration.

The only thing is that for him to die might show that their "he is getting better every day" statements are lies. But really everyone knew that anyway as if it where true he would have taken power back from his brother by now.

 

[HarryKeogh]

He can't be dead. He's not due to die until 2,000,000 years after the Earth hurtles into the Sun.

 

[Brown]

[Paraphrased from Rowan & Martin's "Laugh-In"]

Dan Rowan: Hitler came to power, and the people got "Hitler-ated." Mussolini came to power and the people got "Mussolini-ated."

Dick Martin: My God, and now we've got Castro!

 

[BPSCG]

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has had at least three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection ...

Let's hear once more about how Castro has given the Cuban people free health care for everyone.

You get what you pay for, I guess.

 

[Garrette]

If it is true, I sincerely hope the U.S. uses the change in administration as an excuse to normalize trade. Insistence on that silliness has done nothing to help us that I can conceive.

 

[hgc]

Let's hear once more about how Castro has given the Cuban people free health care for everyone.

You get what you pay for, I guess.

I'm won't make any particular claim about the quality of healthcare in Cuba, but I sure hope you won't either, based on the demise of one particular 80 year old man.

 

[Architect]

Let's hear once more about how Castro has given the Cuban people free health care for everyone.

You get what you pay for, I guess.

You might want to remember that other countries (like, say, the UK) have free healthcare too before you go any further on that line. Or are you claiming that the US system ensures eternal life?

 

[BPSCG]

I'm won't make any particular claim about the quality of healthcare in Cuba, but I sure hope you won't either, based on the demise of one particular 80 year old man.

Well, he is without doubt the wealthiest man in Cuba, and has access to the best health care the country has to offer. And yet, when you read the link, it sounds like Moe, Larry, and Curly are his attending physicians.

“In the summer, the Cuban leader bled abundantly in the intestine,” El Pais reported. “This adversity led him to the operating table, according to the medical sources. His condition, moreover, was aggravated because the infection spread¹ and caused peritonitis, the inflammation of the membrane that covers the digestive organs.”
The recovery from the first operation, in which part of his large intestine was extracted and the colon was connected to the rectum, did not go well. The link broke ² and he released feces into the abdomen that caused another peritonitis, the report said.
A second operation to clean and drain the infected area also failed³, the paper said. He was then hit with inflammation of the bile duct, an illness which has a 80 percent mortality rate, el Pais said. A prosthesis made in South Korea was implanted and failed ⁴and later was replaced with one made in Spain.
‘Severe loss of nutrients’
El Pais said that in December, when Garcia Sabrido visited, Castro had an abdominal wound that was leaking more than a pint of fluids a day,⁵ causing “’a severe loss of nutrients.” The Cuban leader was being fed intravenously, the report said.

Boldings and footnotes mine:
1 - "...the infection spread..." Cuba's relative lack of antibiotics is well-documented.

2 - "...the link broke..." Huh? That sounds odd. Why did it break?

3 - "...second operation...also failed..." No details about how or why.

4 - "...prosthesis...failed..." Again, no explanation why.

5 - "...wound ... leaking more than a pint of fluids a day..." And the doctors couldn't stop it?

Yes, he's eighty years old, but it doesn't sound to me like he's getting particularly expert care.

 

[BPSCG]

You might want to remember that other countries (like, say, the UK) have free healthcare too before you go any further on that line. Or are you claiming that the US system ensures eternal life?

There is no such thing as free health care.