I Bet That's Gotta Hurt

Boy, its gonna be a tough pill to swallow for some, but it looks like Fidel Castro might be making his comeback. I was watching the 11pm news on Telemund51 this evening, and they had Andy Gomez from the University of Miami saying that it is very likely that Fidel might make his official comeback appearance on July 26, to mark that significant day. Mark your calendars boys and girls! This is an embarrassing reversal for Andy Gomez (Senior Fellow at ICCAS) because just last December he wrote that it was "clearly marked" that the post-Fidel Castro era had begun. Well, these errors happens when you are a selfish academic who wants his named splashed all over the news. But, it only adds to the other unreliable work done at UM's Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies.

Anyway, this news comes at the heels of a recent Babalu Blog poll done on May 29, 2007. Blogger Val Prieto simply asked: Is Fidel Castro Dead? 61.3% of 310 voter said yes. Also, that same day Mr. Prieto confidently wrote: "What I don't get is how anyone could believe the guy is alive." Mr. Prieto is betting a lot of money with his readers that he's right. Since last July, he's already posted one, two, three posts with certainty that Fidel Castro is actually dead.

Telemundo51 has their own online poll asking their Spanish-speaking viewers if they believe the newest video footage of Fidel Castro means he will return to power. So far the results are split 50-50.

The newest signs of life for Fidel Castro come from his recent meeting with a Vietnamese Communist Party official (lovebirds above), and video clips of an upcoming television interview(with Cuba's Mesa Redonda) which will be aired on Tuesday (June 5) in Cuba.

I heard this news briefly mentioned on Radio Mambi by a caller (and then ignored immediately by Armando Perez Roura), but they will most likely comment fully very soon. They have a lot of 'splaining to do.

Ever since Fidel became sick last July, the suspicions by RadioMambi commentators on his health have reached enormous proportions of exaggeration. From repeated appearances by doctor Enrique Huertas on Radio Mambi's Mesa Redonda saying that Fidel is "un muerto que camina" ("the walking dead": a claim which Huertas has been making since 1998), to claims of terminal illness (repeating a John Negroponte fallacy, and also an Argentinian story of its CIA origins), to discrediting a Spanish doctor who said that Fidel had no signs of cancer, to newer claims that Fidel Castro is most likely suffering from a neurological disease and unable to make any sense at all, RadioMambi commentators have launched all possible negative scenarios of Fidel Castro's health that I cannot imagine they will ever accept any positive signs, even if they read it on Babalu Blog.

But, the next few days will be real interesting to hear and read how the newest Fidel Castro video is really fake. I wouldn't expect anything less from the most intransigent.