Latin left hail Castro on eve of birthday bash

Left-wing leaders including Bolivian president Evo Morales and Nicaraguan president-elect Daniel Ortega rejoiced in the rise of their progressive movement in Latin America as they marked Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s 80th birthday.

The Latin American luminaries were gathered in Havana’s Karl Marx Theatre for festivities that were postponed from Castro’s actual birthday on August 13 so he could recuperate after intestinal surgery.

Castro said in a written message on Tuesday that he was still not well enough to attend the start of the celebrations today, and has not been seen.

Many Cubans still hoped that Castro would make at least a brief appearance during a massive military parade being held in Havana to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Vice President Carlos Lage thanked the Latin American VIPs for their homage to Castro and predicted his health would improve and that the island would remain socialist long into the future.

“In Cuba, there will not be a transition, there will be continuity,” Lage said. “Fidel will recover, we will have him with us, he will keep leading, and we will ask him to keep doing so for some years more.”

Lage said Castro has remained calm during his illness, the nature of which has never been disclosed.

“His voice has never broken, never a phrase a fear,” he said. “He has never stopped one minute thinking about his people.”

The tribute to Castro also became a celebration of the resurgence of the left in Latin America.

On November 26, Rafael Correa, a left-wing economist who called for Ecuador to cut ties with international lenders, handily won that Andean nation’s presidential elections.

Correa, who has called US president George Bush “dimwitted”, has pledged a citizens’ revolution against Ecuador’s discredited political system and wants to limit US military activities in Ecuador.

On November 5, Daniel Ortega, a leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, won Nicaragua’s presidential elections, ushering in his return to power 16 years after the former guerrilla was ousted in elections.

“We have Venezuela, Cuba and soon Ecuador and Nicaragua,” Morales told thousands of guests at the convention centre. “We want to make alliances with countries in the Middle East to bring an end to the United States empire.”

Minutes before Morales took the podium, Ortega announced that he had something special for Castro.

“I give you as a birthday gift the victory of the Sandinista Front in Nicaragua,” Ortega said. He then left the podium and embraced Cuban defence minister Raul Castro, who is running the country while his brother recuperates.

Venezuela’s foreign minister Nicolas Maduro – appearing in place of Castro’s main ally, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez – said the Cuban leader “has in all of these battles been a fountain of ideas, of life”.

Chavez, who is running for re-election tomorrow, has said that if he wins he will dedicate his victory to Castro.

Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez expressed optimism about Castro’s health upon his arrival in Havana, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported.

“What makes me most happy about being able to come now for the 80th birthday of Fidel is that I will be back for his 100th,” the Colombian author said.