Castro returns to limelight as op/ed writer

HAVANA, Apr 8 (Reuters) Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has jumped back into the limelight with two newspaper columns attacking the United States that point to a future role as elder statesman for the 80-year-old revolutionary.

Eight months after stomach surgery forced him to hand over power to his brother Raul, Castro is back in fighting form, albeit from his sickbed.

In the columns published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma in the past two weeks, Castro denounced his archenemy the United States for using food crops for biofuels, saying the Bush administration's ethanol plans will increase hunger among the world's poor.

Cubans are no longer asking whether Castro will live or die. They now wonder when and how he will reappear in public.

''I think he will be back but with fewer duties,'' a pharmacy professor who did not want to be identified said at the University of Havana where Castro began his political career with rousing speeches as a law student 60 years ago.

Havana housewife Ana Valdes said, ''I want to see him at the May 1 rally in Revolution Square.'' Valdes, who complained about economic hardship in Cuba, added, ''Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.'' Cuban officials say Castro is steadily recovering from his surgery and it is just a question of time until he resumes the presidency he temporarily ceded to Raul Castro on July 31.

Castro is thought to have suffered from diverticulitis, an inflammation of the large intestine that required complicated surgery. His main ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said last month Castro's life had been in danger at one point.

Cuba watchers believe Castro will be too weak to return to hands-on leadership and is more likely to settle in to a role as strategic thinker and decision maker.

''The physical and maybe mental toll of his afflictions seem to have left him debilitated after more than eight months of convalescence,'' said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst and author of ''After Fidel.'' ''Perhaps he is staking out a new emeritus, elder statesman role,'' said Latell, who does not believe Castro will be able to reassert the hegemonic leadership role he had in Cuba.

DIMINISHED DOMESTIC ROLE The columns published by Granma as ''Reflections of the Commander in Chief'' indicate Castro will concentrate on international rather than domestic affairs.

''I think he will remain the central figure on key strategic issues, such as those related to the U.S., relations with Venezuela and other global matters,'' said Frank Mora, a Cuba expert at National War College in Washington.

''But when it comes to running the government, party and even making changes to the economy -- he will become less important,'' Mora said.

In Castro's absence, brother Raul has fostered debate on policy options to reduce corruption, theft and inefficiency in Cuba's battered economy, which is 90 percent owned by the state.

But expectations that the more pragmatic younger Castro would open up the economy following the capitalist reforms of communist allies China or Vietnam have remained unfulfilled.

''As long as Fidel is alive and aware, he will continue to exercise a powerful braking force on his successors,'' Latell said.

Mora believes Castro is thinking about his place in world history at this stage and will use his columns to reinforce his legacy as a champion of the Third World's disenfranchised.

''He has always viewed his role as an international statesman ... he will try to continue being the voice of the ignored,'' Mora said.

Reuters PDM GC1854