Fidel Castro Reportedly In “Grave” Condition

If you’ve worked in the news media, you know that the following stories about Cuba’s ailing Fidel Castro now surfacing are “death watch” stories (and we can assure you the obits are already waiting and merely need a lead paragraph).

The AP:

MADRID, Spain — Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in “very grave” condition after three failed operations and complications from an intestinal infection, a Spanish newspaper said Tuesday.

The newspaper El Pais cited two unnamed sources from the Gregorio Maranon hospital in the Spanish capital of Madrid. The facility employs surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba in December to treat the 80-year-old Castro.

In a report published on its Web site, El Pais said: “A grave infection in the large intestine, at least three failed operations and various complications have left the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, laid up with a very grave prognosis.”

Personal Note: El Pais is an excellent newspaper. When I was in Madrid, it burst onto the scene and became incredibly popular in the aftermath of the death of dictator Francisco Franco. And it’s credibility grew as it pressed for speedy democratization. It was considered to have some of the best sourced-reporters in all of Spain.

News.com (Australia):

Castro, who has not been seen in public since last July and whose illness is being treated as a state secret, suffered a serious infection that worsened to peritonitis, the newspaper said, citing two medical sources at the Madrid hospital where a surgeon who visited Castro works.

The report was posted on the newspaper’s website today.

The 80-year-old revolutionary’s prognosis is “very serious” and he is being fed intravenously, the paper said.

Earlier today, a Latin American diplomat close to Havana said Castro was having problems with the healing of his stitches after stomach surgery.

The diplomat, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, was among one of the presidential delegations in Quito for the swearing in of leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

“Fidel has problems with his stitches healing,” the diplomat said.

Diverticulitis is a condition in which pouch-like bulges in the wall of the intestine become inflamed or infected.

Meanwhile, Castro’s son has been pooh-poohing suggestions that his Dad isn’t progressing well, reports Reuters:

Cuba’s ailing leader Fidel Castro, not seen in public since surgery nearly six months ago, is on the mend, his son and namesake Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart told local media during a visit to Chile, the El Mercurio newspaper reported on Sunday.

“He’s getting better, better, I see him improving,” Castro Junior, also known as “Fidelito” because of how much he looks like his father, said after the inauguration of a scientific center in southern Chile on Saturday.

There have been scant reports on Castro’s health in recent months, since the Cuban leader, now 80, ceded power temporarily to his brother Raul Castro on July 31 after emergency surgery.

His son said on Saturday that the Cuban leader was in a “positive and optimistic mood.”

Most likely Castro’s situation is closer to what El Pais is saying. If you couple the El Pais report with the diplomat’s, and Castro’s overall health, health problems and age, it doesn’t look good for him. The question in the weeks ahead is whether when he passes from the scene it’ll be looking good for Cuba.