Castro refuses to refute rumors of his death

From The New York Times:

HAVANA, May 1 — The throngs were out in the streets with their red shirts and banners just as they always are on May Day, but Cuba’s holiday honoring workers came and went Tuesday without their longtime leader ever showing his face.

This is because of all the people in Cuba Fidel is the only one with the freedom to not show up and pretend to be glad to be living in a communist hell-on-earth.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who marched through Revolution Square in Havana craned their necks toward the huge podium along the parade route to see if Fidel Castro would make his first public appearance since undergoing emergency surgery nine months ago.

They saw his brother, Raúl, the interim leader, standing stiffly in his army uniform. They saw Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly, who occasionally raised his fist in the air, and other leaders of the Communist Party.

They were praying to get some clue that the evil old son-of-a-bitch was dead and burning in hell where he belongs. Seeing his degenerate alcoholic brother standing in the place of honor must have given them hope that their suffering might soon be over.

[. . .]

Cuba has had nine months to get used to the fact that their once-omnipresent leader has assumed a far less visible role. Fears that he is dead or dying have been eased by the photographs, proclamations and occasional video clips of Mr. Castro that the government has been releasing. Still, to many Cubans, the country is now in limbo, led by an interim ruler but also, to some degree, by the man who temporarily ceded power to him.

The only people who "fear" that Castro might be keeping his appointment with Satan's toaster oven are the writers and editors at The New York Times and the faculty and students at most universities and the leadership of the Democrat Party.

Anyone who isn't a congenital idiot looks at his absence as a ray of hope; a sign that Cuba may soon be able to rejoin the civilized world.