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Is Fidel Castro dead? Is Fidel Castro dying? Is this time different?

These are questions that have come up from time to time since July 2006 when Fidel Castro underwent surgery. If one reads between the lines, one might get the impression that Fidel Castro just might be dying because this time we are analyzing his words and those of his closest ally, Hugo Chavez.

Let’s review his latest Reflections and a comment today from Hugo Chavez stating that the world will never see Fidel in public again.

1. The last public photos of Fidel Castro were released on November 19, 2008 when he met with Chinese President Hu. We commented then that Fidel had looked terrible and even appeared to be holding back some drool. Those photos were a photo op for the world and all the preparation that would be justified could not even make Fidel look healthy.
I thought that the photo shown in our recent article about Chinese President Hu meeting with Fidel Castro seemed to show Fidel Castro looking differently… as in a blank expression on his face and a very different hair style. Also notice how tightly Fidel is holding on to Hu AND Fidel’s mouth is closed. Where is the fire? Where is his energy? Remember, these photos are right from BejingDaily.com.cn so these are the BEST propaganda photos that they could put out there… the BEST photos. I wonder what the worst ones look like.

So, I decided to go find photos of Fidel Castro from the recent past just to put all the photos in one place. Some people say that Fidel is dead and that one of his best body doubles is standing in for him. I think that’s a bit of a stretch but have a look at the photos and see if anything seems odd.

Fidel Castro taken from photo with Chinese President Hu on November 18, 2008. Notice how his hair is parted on the left.

Fidel Castro taken from photo with Russia’s Metropolitan Kirill on October 20, 2008 - Russian Orthodox Church. Notice how his hair is parted on the right or combed forward.

Fidel Castro taken from photo with meeting of Uruguay President June 19, 2008 - Reuters

Fidel Castro days after his surgery in August 2006 in recovery. Notice the heavy use of make up that covers his noticeable age spots present before and after surgery. Look at the deep wrinkles on either side of his nose and how they bow it. See the photo above of him with Uruguay President about two years later, the deep wrinkles are very flat and straight.

Undated photo of Fidel Castro but pre-August 2006 when he went into seclusion. I think this was from sometime in 2006 though, maybe a rally against Spain?

Here is a photo that I took in April 2004. This is definitely Castro. I sat and listened to a speech for three hours. A “short” speech. Notice that he does not have deep wrinkles on either side of his nose nor does he have deep wrinkles between his eyebrows. Compare this to the photo above where “he” has deep wrinkles on either side of his nose AND deep wrinkles between his eyebrows. I am no FBI expert but they look like two different people to me. Keep in mind these photos are no more than two years apart.

Just for the record, a photo of Fidel Castro from 1964

So, I’m not forensic scientist or FBI specialist in facial features but I do find it odd that for Fidel’s entire life he has combed his hair back and the wrinkles are interesting. I would like to see some photos of his ears. I would think those are pretty hard to fake.

Anyway, who changes the way they fix their hair when they are 82? Here’s an old photo comparison article for the conspiracy fans out there.

So, if you have any other photo that you would like me to post, please use the email link at the bottom of this page. Be sure to include the source and date or just send a link to the photo and/or story.

2. Fidel’s last Reflection was dated December 15, 2008 referring to a December 10 BBC article and could have been written by an assistant with direction by Fidel.

3. It is my belief that December 10, 2008 was Fidel Castro’s last real Reflection. It was a short Reflection of only 129 words after he received and award from CARICOM. Now we are over one full month since this last real time Reflection by Fidel. From what I can see from his list of Reflections, he has never gone for a month without writing. We may see another Reflection come out shortly but if it is “directed by” or “evergreen” in nature, I think it can be discounted since it most likely would have been written at some previous date in the past. Look through his list and separate the directed or evergreen Reflections from the real Reflections and you can see how infrequent his real Reflections have been for the past couple months. Lastly to this point, no other Reflection that we could find comes close to being as short as 129 words.

4. On December 31, 2008, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel could only write “With the 50th anniversary of the triumph just a few hours away, I congratulate our heroic people.” That’s it. Well known journalist and Cuba expert Tracey Eaton commented on the brevity of the wording especially coming from the man that holds the record for the longest speech at the UN (4 hours and 29 minutes) and speaking even longer than that in 1986 for 7 hours and 10 minutes. Fidel Castro has never made short speeches or wrote short Reflections.

5. Today Hugo Chavez said “That Fidel in his uniform who walked the streets and towns late at night, hugging the people, won’t return” in a radio speech today and that this image will have to “remain in memories”. He also said “Fidel will live forever, beyond the physical life”. These words sound to me as though he is preparing the word for a post-Fidel Castro Cuba.

END

I heard somewhere that people judge us by the words we use. Can we judge Fidel by the (lack of) words he uses?

Is Fidel Castro dead? Is Fidel Castro dying? Is this time different?

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Maybe this is Fidel Castro’s last wish?