Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has reported that his close friend and ally Cuban President Fidel Castro is “fighting for his life,” however, Cuban doctors are expecting him to make a “slow but progressive” recovery. They say it is not surprising for a man his age to recover from a major surgery like his. Cuban doctor, Dr. José Luis Garcia Sabrido, the Spanish doctor who examined Castro, did admit that Castro did suffer some complications after his surgery on his digestive system, and if is able to make a full recovery, he will be able to return to normal activities.

It is not surprising to find the US and Western corporate media trying to describe his condition as being very bleak. The media has carefully manipulated the headlines in a way to provide an illusion that Castro is on his deathbed. Such headlines reads: “Chávez: Castro battling for life” from the Miami Herald to “Chavez admits Castro gravely ill” from the BBC.

Even though the headlines seem grim, we must remind ourselves, that media institutions can become very effective in their own right because they influence opinion and can shape policy so it is vital that we question everything when it comes to media and Cuba. It was recently reported back in Sept. 8 that The Miami Herald had fired 10 US journalists who were paid by the government to expound anti-Castro views. It was later discovered that even that report was flawed. On Nov 19, The Miami Herald corrected itself and reported that the government had actually paid 49 journalists to appear on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two US taxpayer-funded broadcast organizations, to transmit anti-Castro views.

When all the records in the Herald’s possession were examined, it turned out that a total of 49 full-time journalists or contributors to Miami media outlets had received payments from Radio and TV Martí, including more in the newsroom of El Nuevo Herald.

In reality, this is not the first time the US government have contracted with a US-based radio stations to air its propaganda.

After coming into power in 1959, the US has sharply been engaged in a propaganda war with Cuba beginning with Radio Swan, a “black” propaganda broadcasting station that was used during the Bay of Pigs invasion. David Atlee Phillips had established an anti-Castro “Cuban” radio station, Radio Swan, on Swan Island, located between Cuba and Central America.

Radio Marti, however, is a “white” clandestine station that was established by the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act, and then followed by Public Law 101-246 in 1990, which created TV Marti. The goal is to disrupt the social and political environment in Cuba by spreading anti-Castro propaganda through the media that is financed by the US government..

It has been argued that the Castro-led government has a direct state control of the press, but it should be noted that the previous governments exercised control of a privately owned media through frequent closures of newspapers and censorship. Fulgencio Batista, who came to power in a coup on March 10, 1952, established very intense censorship during his nine years of leadership. Censorship under Batista was explained as a response to the threats posed by the rebel movement that would eventually unseat him. A 1953 Time Magazine article describes one of Batista attempt of the censor a story about Manuel Cardinal Arteaga, Archbishop of Havana and Roman Catholic primate of Cuba.

When a nervous regime slaps a rigid censorship on the press, as Fulgencio Batista’s government did after July’s unsuccessful revolt (TIME, Aug. 10), the normal flow of news slackens and nightmare rumors fly ten times faster. One day last month Batista’s propaganda ministry announced cryptically that Manuel Cardinal Arteaga, 73, Archbishop of Havana and Roman Catholic primate of Cuba, had been injured in a fall in his rooms. That was news that Havana’s papers and radio stations would normally have reported in detail, but under censorship they gave only the bare bones of the announcement.

The latest rumor going around comes from Spain’s El Pais. The newspaper on its Web site cited two unidentified sources from the Gregorio Maranon hospital in the Spanish capital of Madrid. The same newspaper that stated Castro had died back in December. This time around, El País wrote that Castro had “a very grave prognosis.”

“A grave infection in the large intestine, at least three failed operations and various complications have left the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, laid up with a very grave prognosis.”

For months the Bush Administration had speculated Castro was suffering from cancer, while in the medical community, some doctors argue that Castro is suffering from diverticular disease, which illustrates the bleeding his in the lower intestine. It seems El País had used the diverticular disease angle and announced that its sources said Castro had suffered a bout of the disease.

The report by El País is considered the most detailed to date on the ailments that have kept Castro out of power for 5 ½ months. On a follow-up article, it then reported that ‘’Castro and his people’’ opted for a dangerous procedure that failed and led to life-threatening complications. However, García Sabrido told reporters on Wednesday that the El País reports were “absolute falsehoods” and that Castro has shown “some progressive improvement.” García Sabrido told CNN:

“The only truthful parts of the newspaper’s reports are the name of the patient, that he has been operated on, and that he has had complications. The rest is rumors,” the surgeon, Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, told CNN in an exclusive interview.

According to CNN, El País had admitted that “the reports were based on second-hand information.”

“We don’t believe our sources have spoken directly with Castro, however, we believe Sabrido shared information with them,” Oriol Guell told CNN en Espanol.

With Castro being hospitalized, the US has been maneuvering for a “post-Castro” Cuba. In waging their “war on the world,” the US imperialists have paid little attention to Latin America as they have to the Middle East and Central Asia. The outcome of the recent vote in Latin America indicates that each country is interested in moving towards their own unique and tropical form of socialism as result of their own political maturity. Although this is named after Simón Bolívar, it was Castro and his resistance against the American Empire that got the ball rolling.

If El Pais was another propaganda piece by the US, then it must be called out and demand that the US to stop meddling in Cuba’s affairs. The US has no right to direct Cuba’s future.

Technorati Tags: Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro, corporate media, Miami Herald, Radio Martí, TV Martí, Cuba, El País, Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido

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