Fidel's fall not Cuban TV fodder

By Tracey Eaton
The Dallas Morning News

APTN / AP President Fidel Castro, who tripped after a speech at a graduation ceremony Wednesday in Santa Clara, Cuba, broke a knee and an arm. The tumble was the talk of the nation but not in Cuban TV broadcasts, which ran cartoons.

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HAVANA — News programs around the world broadcast startling images yesterday of Fidel Castro stumbling and falling, breaking his knee and fracturing his arm. But state-run Cuban television showed none of that, opting instead for Bugs Bunny, Popeye and other soft fare.

Still, Castro's tumble Wednesday night was all many Cubans were talking about. And a lot of what they learned came by word of mouth or, as Cubans call it, Radio Bemba — Lips Radio.

Castro, 78, crashed to the ground after giving a nationally broadcast speech at a graduation ceremony in Santa Clara in central Cuba. Some Cubans say their television screens went black after the fall. Others say they saw the Cuban president stumble, but the image was blurry.

A Cuban government statement issued at 3:14 a.m. yesterday said Castro broke his left knee and his right arm but was in excellent spirits and in good enough condition to manage important national affairs.

The statement added, however, that only information that is "strictly indispensable" concerning the accident would be made public "for obvious reasons."

Most Cubans know little about Castro's family, where he lives, what he eats, what he does in his spare time.

And Cuba's main state-run newspaper, Granma, isn't about to uncover anything new. The paper never investigates government corruption, rarely reports violent crime and doesn't have an obituary section.

"If you look at Granma, you would think Cubans don't die. There's no page every day that gives you important people who die," said Frank Calzon, director of Center for a Free Cuba, an anti-Castro organization in Washington.

An Associated Press Television News cameraman caught Castro's fall on tape. Bodyguards and others helped the president into a chair. He asked for a microphone.

"I am in one piece," he told the students, some of whom were crying. "You can count on me to do everything in my power to recover as soon as possible. As you can see, I am able to speak. Even if they put a cast on me, I can continue doing my work."

"I am embarrassed for the possible suffering I may have caused because of this," Castro said before leaving the scene in his customary black Mercedes.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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