Castro's grip firm as Cuba's revolution turns 50

On Aug. 5, 1994, drama erupted on the Malecon as thousands of Cubans gathered to cheer a ferry hijacking and grew angry as authorities intervened, throwing rocks at police and shops catering to foreigners only.

Fidel Castro arrived in a military jeep, waded into the melee, and calmed the rioters by announcing he would not stop anyone wanting to leave.

People hugging inner tubes and rickety rafts hurled themselves from the seawall and struck out for Florida, 90 miles away. "They'd just get out of cars and jump into the water," recalls Wilfredo Mason, a Malecon barber. "Some left motorcycles behind!"

As many as 40,000 Cubans left. But for Luis Gonzalez, 41, the West held little attraction. "Born after the revolution, I don't have anything to compare it with," he says. "But the revolution gives us free medicine and education, and capitalism doesn't deliver those things."

Another Cuba-U.S. crisis came in 1996, when Cuban fighter pilots shot down two planes flown by exile pilots, killing four people. Whether the planes invaded Cuban airspace is disputed, but the U.S. Congress swiftly passed the Helms-Burton Act, which banned the embargo's removal as long as either Castro was in power.

Castro's health a state secret
Castro was last seen in public on July 26, 2006, at a major celebration in eastern Cuba — five days before he had intestinal surgery and ceded power to Raul.

His health today is a state secret. He doesn't appear in public and looks increasingly gaunt in occasional official photographs. But he keeps writing essays that are read in full on state TV.

In one essay he responded to Obama's willingness to talk by saying "a conversation can be held wherever he wants."

Although his brother permanently replaced him as president in February, state media continue to refer to Fidel as "Leader of the Revolution," and many ordinary Cubans still call him El Comandante.

It's telling that apart from celebratory slogans in Havana store windows, there is no indication that authorities are planning much hoopla for the 50th anniversary. Raul Castro will lead the main celebration Jan. 1 in the eastern city of Santiago, but the leadership reportedly toned down its plans after three hurricanes this year caused more than $10 billion in damage.

That may be another sign of the younger Castro's pragmatic, unshowy style. But blogger Sanchez maintains that the revolution died long ago and needs no birthday bash.

"Let it rest in peace," she wrote in a Dec. 14 posting, "and we will soon begin a new cycle: shorter, less pretentious, more free."

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