HAVANA – In apparently good physical health, Fidel Castro addressed a cheering rally of 20,000 outside Havana on Saturday and announced that this year’s National Rebellion Day would be held in the Cuban capital.
The Cuban president made an unscheduled appearance at the rally in Bejucal, a town seven miles south of the capital, accompanied by his brother and heir apparent, Raul Castro. The event was held to condemn the sentences of five Cuban men who were found guilty by a federal jury in Miami last month of conspiring to spy for Havana.
The brothers, flanked by top-ranking ministers and Communist party activists, stood at the front of the crowd waving Cuban flags as speakers and musicians sang and chanted revolutionary messages.
The crowd cheered wildly when, toward the end of the rally, Mr. Castro climbed the stairs to the stage unaided and made an unusually brief, eight-minute speech.
He announced that Havana would hold this year’s National Rebellion Day rally, one of the most important holidays on this Communist-ruled island.
It marks the first day of armed insurrection in 1953 by the Castro brothers against the then-dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista. Each year it is celebrated in a different part of Cuba.
Mr. Castro’s appearance Saturday came amid mounting rumors the 74-year-old leader’s health could be deteriorating.
Two Saturdays ago, Mr. Castro swooned in front of the microphones as he addressed a rally under the blazing tropical sun outside Havana.
He reappeared later that day and has shown himself at several public events since. The government has referred to the fainting incident as “momentary fatigue.”
On Saturday, Mr. Castro stood and chanted for more than an hour with the rest of the crowd, flanked by Raul Castro – who turned 70 last month – Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. He climbed and descended the stairs to the podium without assistance.
Mr. Castro’s speech left the crowd with no doubt that he believed his Communist regime would continue after his death.
“The Cuban revolution is not the work of one man alone,” he said. “It is the work of past and present generations – the fruit of the heroism of an indomitable people. Millions of Cubans will know how to defend [the revolution] to the last drop of their blood.”
