Cubans in anti-US protest, hope for Castro's return

HAVANA, May 1 (Reuters) Tens of thousands of Cubans poured through Havana early today for an anti-US parade with many hoping recovering leader Fidel Castro would make his first public appearance since emergency surgery last July.

Police escorted convoys of buses and open trucks through the capital before dawn for a May Day workers parade to condemn the recent release from a US prison of Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro exile accused of killing 73 people in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner.

Castro has called on all Cubans to protest the release and there was speculation he might make a triumphant appearance in Revolution Square almost exactly nine months after intestinal surgery forced him to temporarily hand power to Raul Castro, his younger brother and defense minister.

But Castro, 80, gave no indication he would attend in an editorial column issued late yesterday in which he described former CIA agent Posada Carriles as a ''monster of terrorism.'' Still, supporters hoped he would appear.

''We need him to return,'' said Luisa Cuellar, who woke up before dawn to walk with friends to Revolution Square, the political heart of communist Cuba since Castro swept to power in a 1959 revolution. ''He is the one who keeps us united.'' Another Castro loyalist waved a hand-painted ''Long Live Fidel'' cardboard placard from the back of a truck as it rumbled toward the parade, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.

Castro's main foreign allies have done most to raise expectations he might return today.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said over the weekend his political idol was already back ''in charge'' in Cuba, and Bolivian President Evo Morales said he was certain Castro would reappear on May 1.

SECRECY Since his surgery, Cubans have only seen Castro in photographs or video footage meeting with foreign dignitaries or speaking with Chavez by telephone.

The most recent footage showed him looking stronger after regaining some of the weight he had lost, but he still appeared frail. His long absence and government secrecy over his illness have cast uncertainty over Cuba's political future.

If he fails to appear, it would be the first time in almost four decades Castro has missed a May Day parade.

Traditionally a celebration of workers, Cuba has turned this year's event into a protest against the release of Posada Carriles. ''Prison for the executioner,'' said one huge banner on the National Theater in Revolution Square.

Regardless of their views of communist rule, the vast majority of Cubans were appalled when Posada Carriles was freed from a New Mexico jail on April 19. The government blamed Washington for his release and said it showed the hypocrisy of its declared war on terror.

Cuba also accuses Posada Carriles of plotting a wave of bomb blasts in Havana hotels in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist. It says US authorities are protecting him by prosecuting him on immigration rather than terrorism charges.

REUTERS KD RK1700