CASTRO: 140 Years Old?

Remember this?

The AFP reported on May 19, 2006:

Cuban President Fidel Castro, who turns 80 this year, enjoys vibrant health and will live to 140, his chief doctor said.

Doctor Eugenio Selman-Housein, who heads Castro's medical team, denied that the longtime leader has Parkinson's disease, as the CIA reportedly believes.

"Every day they invent a new one," Selman-Housein said. "He will live 140 years."

ABC News went into more detail, June 1, 2006:

Ditching the cigars but not the army fatigues, Cuban leader Fidel Castro leads a life that guarantees he'll live more than a century, according to his doctor.

"He is going to live 140 years," said Dr. Eugenio Selman, who heads the 120 Years Club that promotes healthy habits for the elderly.

Despite recurring rumors of his demise, Castro, who turns 80 in August, is not only a stellar club member but has also shown great resiliency as a leader, said Selman.

...Selman credits Castro's "good genes" and outstanding diet and lifestyle.

"He eats moderately," he said. "His health is strong as iron — he has demonstrated that his whole life." The doctor shed no light on Castro's actual diet or if the leader drank specially brewed teas but emphasized that his famous patient follows all the club's six main guidelines.

..."When he dies," the doctor said, referring to his world-famous client, "nobody will believe it, since they have killed him so many times already."

Rest assured, the doctor said Castro is far from that day.

I think Dr. Selman might be wrong.

Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night and told Cubans he underwent surgery.

The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to the letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

"The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest," the letter said, adding that extreme stress "had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure."

Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his younger brother and successor Raul, the defense minister, but said the move was of "a provisional character." There was no immediate appearance or statement by Raul Castro.

I don't know. I doubt that Castro will be ruling Cuba for fifty or sixty more years. Are you with me on that?

News of his health problems were met with rejoicing and celebrations in Miami's Little Havana.

Beating on cooking pots and honking car horns, hundreds of Cuban exiles streamed into the streets of Miami's Little Havana to celebrate news that Cuban President Fidel Castro had handed over power.

Calle Ocho, the main street of the Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Miami that is the heart of Castro's exiled opposition, was awash in Cuban flags and dancing people who had waited years, and in some cases decades, for this moment. Fireworks exploded over parts of Miami.

Castro announcement that he was handing over power provisionally to his younger brother and designated successor Raul Castro while he underwent surgery was greeted by Cuban exiles in Miami as a signal of his imminent demise.

Although the celebration is underway in Miami, Castro's 80th birthday celebrations are being postponed until December.

I think that's a bit risky. Time is not on Castro's side.