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Castro promises "I won't faint again"
( 2001-06-30 14:35 ) (7 )

Unbowed by his collapse at a rally just days ago, President Fidel Castro was back on Friday leading Cuba's masses in an anti-U.S protest and proclaiming his state of health "better than ever."

"I promise you I won't faint again, I won't get over-tired again," Castro said in a lengthy chat with reporters at the end of his first open-air appearance since his dramatic collapse from heat and exhaustion two hours into a speech at another public demonstration last Saturday.

Castro, who turns 75 in August, said his mistake then was to have wanted to say too much, and to have under-estimated the strength of the sun. However, he again spent three hours Friday morning unshaded from the sun as he first sat through the event then stood talking to journalists.

After his collapse, Castro said, he underwent a series of medical tests which showed his health was fine.

"I'm better than ever, I didn't realize what good form I was in, but I'm watching the limits, really," he said, laughing with reporters after a rally of some 30,000 Cubans to demand freedom for five agents jailed in the United States.

Castro momentarily lost consciousness at Saturday's rally and slumped against his lectern, before being taken away and resuscitated in a nearby ambulance. He was back 10 minutes later, however, telling a shocked crowd and millions of Cubans watching on TV "I'm fine".

Sporting his trademark military fatigues Friday, Castro strode confidently Friday morning into the "anti-imperialist" square opposite the US diplomatic mission, waving a Cuban flag before taking his seat at the head of the crowd.

Having pledged to be more "prudent" in the future, Castro sipped water at various points during Friday's act.

His presence was a typical public show of strength from the "Maximum Leader" who has led Cuba for 42 years since his 1959 revolution. But Castro also knows his collapse has broken taboos about discussing his health and the political succession in Cuba once he leaves power permanently.

In that vein, Castro made some of his clearest comments to date, confirming his brother Raul, head of Cuba's armed forces and No. 2 in the political hierarchy, as his successor.

"RAUL IS THE ONE"

"If they tell me tomorrow morning, you're having a heart attack, a sudden death, or if I have an accident ... and I go to sleep for eternity, Raul is the one with most authority and experience," he told reporters.

His 70-year-old younger brother was in fine form physically, Castro said, demonstrated by his recent climb up Cuba's highest peak, the Pico Turquino, in the eastern Sierra Maestra mountains.

"It's not just Raul, though. There is a plethora of new young talent in our country, because one of the characteristics of the Revolution is to have promoted a whole new generation of young people and cadres," added Castro, whose collapse was the first time ever he has been unable to finish a public speech.

Unconfirmed rumors have swirled for years over Castro's health, saying he was suffering from a range of ailments including brain disease, cancer or Parkinson's.

Although sometimes appearing to lose his way in speeches, Castro has in general looked strong in recent years, often standing for hours to speak, or head rallies and marches.

While most people accept the official explanation that Castro collapsed in the heat as any septuagenarian might -- and as many much younger people did during the same rally -- the event nevertheless shocked Cubans deeply.

Many are now discreetly discussing the future of Cuba, with most agreeing Raul Castro would quickly step in to replace him.

Friday's rally was part of the ruling Communist Party's growing national mobilization of a huge political campaign over the five agents -- similar to Cuba's campaign during the custody saga over young shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez.

At the rally, speaker after speaker rose in front of Castro, and the state-mobilized crowd, to denounce the conviction of the agents by a Miami court earlier this month.

"These five titans ... these five Cubans arbitrarily detained as political prisoners have proved themselves immaculate and consistent products of a victorious revolution," one schoolgirl speaker, Elizabeth Mirabal, said.

Participants wore T-shirts with faces of the five, proclaiming "Heroic Conduct in the Entrails of the Monster" and "Prisoners of Imperialism."

The five agents, accused of infiltrating US military installations and anti-Castro Cuban American groups, face lengthy sentences, including life for some. But Havana is hailing them as "heroes" who risked their lives to alert their country of "terrorism" planned against Cuba from US soil.