Cubans wish absent Castro happy 80th birthday

HAVANA, Aug 13 (Reuters) Cubans wished Fidel Castro a happy 80th birthday today even though the ailing leader has not been seen or heard in public since ceding power to his brother two weeks ago after stomach surgery.

''Fidel, Fidel, long live Fidel,'' chanted young Cubans at a birthday concert on Havana's Malecon seafront boulevard where 3,000 gathered to listen to a five-hour lineup of the island's top musical talent.

Castro did not make an appearance at the concert or issue a statement about his birthday.

Details of Castro's health are considered a state secret, so there has been little information about his condition or even confirmation he was alive following surgery for internal bleeding.

Raul Castro, 75, has not appeared in public either, adding to the uncertainty over the political future of one of the world's last communist outposts.

''We hope he (Fidel) gets better. For all oppressed people, Cuba is an example that socialism is possible,'' said Juan Carlos Cruz, a Bolivian studying medicine in Cuba for free.

Students bused to the show held Cuban, Venezuelan and Bolivian flags.

Fidel was 32 when he led his 1959 revolution to victory and has become an old man while ruling the island for 47 years.

He is the last of the key Cold War era figures on the world stage and has survived through the administrations of 10 US presidents, despite their long efforts to oust him from power.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Castro's closest ally in Latin America, said yesterday he would go to Havana, with gifts and a cake in hand, to celebrate Castro's birthday, but had not yet been seen.

During today's concert, musicians performed on the ''Anti-Imperialist Stage'' opposite the US diplomatic mission on Malecon boulevard.

Since Castro's surgery, US President George W Bush has urged Cubans to push for a democratic government.

But at the same time, the White House, caught up in a campaign against illegal immigration, has urged Cubans not to hop in boats and cross the 90 miles of water to Florida.

CASTRO CONVALESCING A large message board recently installed on the US mission urged Cubans during the celebration to stay at home and work for change.

Michael Parmly, head of the US mission, briefly attended the birthday celebration, standing amid the partiers while the music played.

''Since he arrived Mr. Parmly has a policy of getting to know Cuba and enjoying its culture,'' a US diplomatic source said. ''Look for a crowd of Cubans and you will find Parmly.'' Castro's celebration was preceded yesterday by a cheerful article in Granma, the Communist Party daily, that said he had been seen walking, talking and doing a little work in the still undisclosed place where he is convalescing.

In honor of Castro's birthday, neighborhood watch groups called Committees to Defend the Revolution, which play a central role in mobilizing rank-and-file support for the government, called on Cubans to spend today sweeping and cleaning up their blocks.

Sugar industry workers will work four extra hours in cane fields, officials said. Communist youth organizations will man building sites and other workplaces.

Aside from the Havana party, major celebrations of Castro's birthday have been postponed until December 2, the 50th anniversary of his landing in eastern Cuba with a boatload of rebels to launch the guerrilla war that later brought him to power.

REUTERS LL KP1145