Bayamo, Cuba – Fidel Castro joked about his age – he’s about to turn 80 – and told thousands gathered here Wednesday to commemorate the beginning of the Cuban Revolution that he has no plans to still be leading this island nation when he reaches the century mark.
Wearing his traditional olive-drab uniform, Castro, whose birthday is Aug. 13, came to this town southeast of Havana to mark the 53rd anniversary of his attack on the Moncada army barracks, a defeat the Communist regime nevertheless venerates as the start of the insurgency that brought it to power in 1959.
“Let the little neighbors to the north be unworried, I don’t intend to still be exercising my office until I’m 100,” Castro quipped in the course of a 2 1/2 hour speech that he delivered while standing.
He also mentioned the tumble he took in October 2004 during a public event in the city of Santa Clara, noting that he continues to undergo rehabilitation for the injuries he suffered to his leg and arm.
“It will soon be two years since my elegant fall,” Castro said. “What would have become of me without a therapist to make me walk and use the arm, perhaps with not so much punch as in other times? But I still have my left, which is a very symbolic arm.”
The aging strongman devoted most of the substance of his address to extolling the social programs of the revolution, which he credited with helping to raise Cubans’ life expectancy to 77 years, a longevity comparable to that of residents in much-wealthier countries.
Organizers said that 100,000 people turned out for Wednesday’s ceremony at the Plaza of the Homeland in Bayamo, though it is common in Cuba for authorities to encourage – if not compel – citizens to attend such events.
Sharing the platform with Castro were government ministers, Communist Party officials and veterans of the Cuban Revolution.
On July 26, 1953, a young lawyer named Fidel Castro led rebels in the first armed challenge to the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista, which took the form of attacks on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes army barracks in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. The assaults were repulsed, but heralded the revolution that would ultimately triumph in January 1959.
