.Surgeons fought for hours to save Castro's life
Doctors at the exclusive Cimeq hospital in western Havana are accustomed to handling the delicate health problems of Cuba's communist elite.
It was here last weekend, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt, that they battled for several hours to save the life of the regime's most important patient, Fidel Castro. Unable to stem intestinal bleeding with drugs, the country's top surgeons performed an emergency operation on the veteran leader.
To all but a handful of trusted doctors and his closest lieutenants, President Castro's medical condition has been shrouded in mystery, described as a "state secret" in words attributed to the dictator until, on Friday, the health minister, José Ramón Balaguer, said he was recovering and "will be back with us soon".
The 79-year-old president is understood to have undergone surgery on Saturday at Cimeq before being wheeled back from the operating theatre to the floor reserved for him and his 75-year-old brother, Raúl. The facility is in the district of Siboney, home to Cuba's most prestigious scientific research complex and near Gen Castro's official residence in a tightly guarded military zone.
The Cuban leader received treatment on a par with the best in the world. But most Cubans, reliant on the supposedly universal health system, have to pay for even basic drugs such as aspirin and the equivalent of £30 for "extras" such as X-rays.
Gen Castro's handover of power to Raúl, albeit temporary, was disclosed to a stunned nation two nights later as they gathered around flickering television sets. In Washington and Miami, Gen Castro's long-time foes urged the Cuban people to push for democratic change. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said in a broadcast beamed to the island: "Much is changing there… We will stand with you to secure your rights."
Yet if the regime's "Berlin Wall moment" was approaching, it was hard to discern as the cowed populace instead focused on the daily struggle to survive. Indeed, two leading dissidents, Miriam Leiva and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, urged calm rather than street protests in an interview.
Outside their apartment in Havana's Playa district, the eyes of an old woman who was brushing the path bore into the visitors knocking at her neighbours' door.
"Don't worry about her," said Mrs Leiva, in a room piled high with books and letters. "Sometimes we catch her with her ear almost to the window. You learn to ignore it."
Mrs Leiva, an independent journalist, and her husband, Mr Espinosa, the leading anti-regime economist and a former political prisoner, are accustomed to having their lives monitored by informers. There is even a secret police listening post on the floor above their one-bedroom flat.
Last week, they said, surveillance by plainclothes agents was intensified as the island underwent its greatest political upheaval in 47 years. Despite the jubilant scenes among exiles in Miami's Little Havana, dissidents in Cuba, a small and loose-knit bunch, remained cautious.
"The opposition has no fear as we have been jailed and threatened and bullied already. But the Cuban people are too scared and intimidated to take to the streets," said Mr Espinosa, 65. "People are scared that there may be bloodshed. Castro has successfully built up their fears for the future."
His 59-year-old wife added: "The repression here is just too strong. They can party in Miami but there's nothing for us here to celebrate. All we can do is speak out."
The couple are disillusioned former Castro supporters who once served as diplomats in eastern Europe. Mr Espinosa was jailed for 25 years in 2003: his counter-revolutionary crime was to highlight the regime's economically disastrous policies. He was temporarily freed in late 2004 as his health failed but his release papers state that he will be put back behind bars if his health improves.
"The revolution died long ago. Fidel was a national hero and we dreamed of a new Cuba but the state just took over the land and the factories and destroyed the economy," he said. Quoting official figures, he said the average monthly salary was just £11 and most pensioners receive just £4.40 a month.
Last week it became clear that Cuba was facing a vacuum not of power - the country remained under tight communist control and reservists were called up - but of leadership, as the new ruling clique made no statement. Raúl Castro's silence created tension, even as the media insisted he was "firmly at the helm".
Across Havana, banners fluttering from crumbling buildings bear the message, "Viva Fidel - 80 More". It is Gen Castro's 80th birthday next Sunday but, for now, Cubans are united in waiting to see what happens next.
"We can't change things," said a young man clutching a bottle of rum at a festival in Old Havana, "so we might as well drink. We've been waiting for decades: we can wait a little longer."
Telegraph
It was here last weekend, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt, that they battled for several hours to save the life of the regime's most important patient, Fidel Castro. Unable to stem intestinal bleeding with drugs, the country's top surgeons performed an emergency operation on the veteran leader.
To all but a handful of trusted doctors and his closest lieutenants, President Castro's medical condition has been shrouded in mystery, described as a "state secret" in words attributed to the dictator until, on Friday, the health minister, José Ramón Balaguer, said he was recovering and "will be back with us soon".
The 79-year-old president is understood to have undergone surgery on Saturday at Cimeq before being wheeled back from the operating theatre to the floor reserved for him and his 75-year-old brother, Raúl. The facility is in the district of Siboney, home to Cuba's most prestigious scientific research complex and near Gen Castro's official residence in a tightly guarded military zone.
The Cuban leader received treatment on a par with the best in the world. But most Cubans, reliant on the supposedly universal health system, have to pay for even basic drugs such as aspirin and the equivalent of £30 for "extras" such as X-rays.
Gen Castro's handover of power to Raúl, albeit temporary, was disclosed to a stunned nation two nights later as they gathered around flickering television sets. In Washington and Miami, Gen Castro's long-time foes urged the Cuban people to push for democratic change. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said in a broadcast beamed to the island: "Much is changing there… We will stand with you to secure your rights."
Yet if the regime's "Berlin Wall moment" was approaching, it was hard to discern as the cowed populace instead focused on the daily struggle to survive. Indeed, two leading dissidents, Miriam Leiva and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, urged calm rather than street protests in an interview.
Outside their apartment in Havana's Playa district, the eyes of an old woman who was brushing the path bore into the visitors knocking at her neighbours' door.
"Don't worry about her," said Mrs Leiva, in a room piled high with books and letters. "Sometimes we catch her with her ear almost to the window. You learn to ignore it."
Mrs Leiva, an independent journalist, and her husband, Mr Espinosa, the leading anti-regime economist and a former political prisoner, are accustomed to having their lives monitored by informers. There is even a secret police listening post on the floor above their one-bedroom flat.
Last week, they said, surveillance by plainclothes agents was intensified as the island underwent its greatest political upheaval in 47 years. Despite the jubilant scenes among exiles in Miami's Little Havana, dissidents in Cuba, a small and loose-knit bunch, remained cautious.
"The opposition has no fear as we have been jailed and threatened and bullied already. But the Cuban people are too scared and intimidated to take to the streets," said Mr Espinosa, 65. "People are scared that there may be bloodshed. Castro has successfully built up their fears for the future."
His 59-year-old wife added: "The repression here is just too strong. They can party in Miami but there's nothing for us here to celebrate. All we can do is speak out."
The couple are disillusioned former Castro supporters who once served as diplomats in eastern Europe. Mr Espinosa was jailed for 25 years in 2003: his counter-revolutionary crime was to highlight the regime's economically disastrous policies. He was temporarily freed in late 2004 as his health failed but his release papers state that he will be put back behind bars if his health improves.
"The revolution died long ago. Fidel was a national hero and we dreamed of a new Cuba but the state just took over the land and the factories and destroyed the economy," he said. Quoting official figures, he said the average monthly salary was just £11 and most pensioners receive just £4.40 a month.
Last week it became clear that Cuba was facing a vacuum not of power - the country remained under tight communist control and reservists were called up - but of leadership, as the new ruling clique made no statement. Raúl Castro's silence created tension, even as the media insisted he was "firmly at the helm".
Across Havana, banners fluttering from crumbling buildings bear the message, "Viva Fidel - 80 More". It is Gen Castro's 80th birthday next Sunday but, for now, Cubans are united in waiting to see what happens next.
"We can't change things," said a young man clutching a bottle of rum at a festival in Old Havana, "so we might as well drink. We've been waiting for decades: we can wait a little longer."
Telegraph
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