Troops marched in the streets and fighter jets streaked across the skies of Havana on Saturday rehearsing a December 2 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution and the 80th birthday of its leader, Fidel Castro.The military parade next month will be the first in a decade in the Cuban capital and may bring Castro’s first public appearance since he had intestinal surgery in July that forced him to cede power temporarily to his brother Raul.
The highlight of the rehearsal was the rolling out of a full replica of the yacht Granma that brought Fidel Castro and his small band of revolutionaries from Mexico to start their fight against dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The revolutionaries landed on December 2, 1956, in southeastern Cuba and three years later toppled the Batista government.
Since his surgery, Castro has been seen only in a few photos and videos, the last of which quelled rumors he had died but provoked speculation he was not well enough to attend the parade in the city’s main square.
But the rehearsal included the reading of a script over booming loudspeakers that contained several references to “our undefeated and invincible commandante Fidel Castro Ruz,” giving no indication he would not show up.
Castro turned 80 on August 13 but his birthday celebration was postponed due to the surgery, the cause of which has never been fully disclosed.
He walked haltingly in a video shown last month and looked unhealthy but insisted he was still involved in governing the communist island that, until his surgery, he ran without interruption after taking power in 1959.
After the Granma replica passed the reviewing stand, about 2,000 soldiers and marines marched past. Earlier, three fighter jets and two military helicopters made a practice run over Havana.
The actual parade will include tanks and heavy weapons, said an organizer who identified himself only as Lt. Col. Rodriguez.
He said the parade, along with a celebration, would be a show of force for Cuba’s enemies. Cuba’s primary opponent has long been the United States, which gets a constant drubbing in Cuban media and from Cuban officials for its 44-year-old economic embargo intended to undermine the Castro government.
“We’re not going to fill the plaza with all the planes, tanks or all the arms we have, only what is necessary for the enemy to know that we are prepared,” he told Reuters.
Source: Reuters
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