Dead Man’s Hand
The AP’s “Our Man in Havana” Will Weissert files:
“HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro signed a lengthy essay published Sunday saluting a Cuban political figure but giving no hint of how he is feeling, even amid rampant rumors of his death. The 81-year-old Castro has not been seen in public in over a year and has not even appeared in official photographs or video footage since taping an interview with Cuban state television June 5…. Castro’s essay, the latest in dozens of “Reflections of the Commander in Chief” columns he has published several times a week since late March, was signed Saturday evening and appeared in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde on Sunday.
Exactly how Weissert knows this is left to speculation. Did he witness the signature being appended on Saturday evening? Or did he just crack open a crisp copy of Juventud Rebelde this morning, see the byline “by Fidel Castro Ruz,” and decide to just, well, “phone it in” to the credulous souls at the AP copy desk? There’s a great deal of distance between “An article with the byline ‘Fidel Castro’” and “Fidel Castro signed a lengthy essay.”
Topics: Cuba
Posted by Gerard Van der Leun at 3:22 pm on Sunday, August 26, 2007
3 Responses to “Dead Man’s Hand”
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August 26th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Looks like Fidelito is destined to become another ghost leader like Osama bin Laden: dead or all but dead, yet officially “still in charge”.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Hey…Weekend at Bernie’s is a smash hit in the 3rd world. Fidel was always a showboat…if someone else can be dead for a weekend without anyone noticing..he can be dead for at least a year.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Concealing the death of a ruler is so not new. The Emperor who united China, Qin Shi Huang (259 BC - 210 BC), died while traveling far from his capital.
From Wikipedia:
Prime Minister Li Si, who accompanied him, was extremely worried that the news of his death could trigger a general uprising in the empire, given the brutal policies of the government, and the resentment of the population forced to work on Herculean projects such as the great wall in the north of China or the mausoleum of the emperor.
It would take two months for the government to reach the capital, and it would not be possible to stop the uprising. Li Si decided to hide the death of the emperor, and return to Xianyang.
Most of the imperial entourage accompanying the emperor was left uninformed of the emperor’s death, and each day Li Si entered the wagon where the emperor was supposed to be traveling, pretending to discuss affairs of state.
The secretive nature of the emperor while alive allowed this stratagem to work, and it did not raise doubts among courtiers. Li Si also ordered that two carts containing fish be carried immediately before and after the wagon of the emperor. The idea behind this was to prevent people from noticing the foul smell emanating from the wagon of the emperor, where his body was starting to decompose severely.
Eventually, after about two months, Li Si and the imperial court were back in Xianyang, where the news of the death of the emperor was announced.