Desde Dentro de Cuba.

Distribuido por Cuba Free Press, Inc. - http://www.cubafreepress.org

HAVANA, August 16, 1998, Cuba Free Press. >

SINCE 1994, CASTRO'S BIRTHDAY BRINGS PARTIES By Tania Quintero, Cuba Free Press.

HAVANA Fifteen years ago, no mass media in Cuba even insinuated that August 13 was Castro's birthday. But since 1994, with plenty of advance notice, Cubans are reminded that on August 13 there will be many activities, whether parties for children, public or private celebrations, sporting events and even openings of buildings or police operations.

This August 13, "La Complaciente" (The Pleasant) bakery gave a double quota of bread to the hundreds of consumers who go there each day to buy the single allotted bread bun with their ration card.

The unusual generosity is linked to the birthday of the state's maximum leader. But, one elderly Cuban told the writer, "Instead of two pieces of breads, they should give a quarter chicken."

This time around, Castro reached age 72 in the midst of suffocating heat and a drought. It has been keeping Cuba exhausted, looking towards the sky waiting for rain. Healthwise, the leader seems fine, according to the speeches he gives in and out of Cuba.

The 72nd anniversary of the most anti-imperialist of the Third World leaders seemed tarnished, at least in part, with the recent discovery of alleged attempts against his life while at the Dominican Republic, site of the Caribbean Summit to which he was invited.

To offset the bad news, good news arrived by cable: Fidel Castro is the proud recipient of the Mohammar El Khadaffi International Prize for Human Rights, given by the Libyan government as recognition for his stance against the "criminal Yankee" blockade.

By Tania Quintero, Cuba Free Press.