Cubans unsure Castro will appear, resume governing

HAVANA, May 1 (Reuters) Cubans prepared for massive May Day workers' parades, unsure whether Fidel Castro would resume governing the country with his first public appearance since falling seriously ill nine months ago.

Hundreds of thousands of workers are expected to march through Revolution Square, the political heart of the communist state Castro built 90 miles (145 km) from the United States after a 1959 revolution.

Castro gave no indication he would attend the rally in an editorial column distributed by the government that encouraged workers to protest the US release of a Cuban exile wanted for bomb attacks against Cuba.

In his fourth column in a month, the 80-year-old Cuban leader called the former CIA agent released April 19 on bail pending trial on immigration charges a ''monster of terrorism.'' Senior government officials could not say whether Castro would show up in public for the first time since he underwent emergency intestinal surgery and handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul on July 31.

''I cannot confirm or deny he will be there. I haven't the least idea,'' Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly and one of Castro's closest aides, said yesterday.

It would be the first time in four decades Castro has missed the Workers' Day rally, which this year will denounce Washington for refusing to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro exile accused of downing a Cuban airliner in 1976.

''I don't think he will show up,'' said Yasmin, an economics student at Havana University. ''They say he is recovering, but one thing is to speak on the telephone and another to spend an hour in the sun.'' Castro's prolonged absence and secrecy over his illness have cast uncertainty over Cuba's political future.

Cubans have not been told what Castro suffered and have only seen him in photographs or video footage meeting with foreign dignitaries, or speaking by telephone with his closest ally and protege, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

''He is in charge, he is in charge, he is doing a lot of thinking,'' Chavez said in a speech at a Latin American summit in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, on Sunday.

Another leftist ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales, said on Friday that he was sure Castro would return to governing Cuba by attending the May Day parade in Havana.

Not all Cubans are happy at the prospect of his return.

''Those who admire him want to see him reappear as strong as before. Those who despise him are depressed at the thought,'' said dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua.

He said many Cubans struggling to survive daily economic hardship have become indifferent to Castro's fate.

''The Cuban people really want to know what's happening with Fidel Castro, instead of getting news about him from Venezuela or Bolivia,'' he said.

REUTERS RJ BD1049