Castro and Company Open Cuba's Doors

HAVANA, Cuba, Sept. 16, 2006 — -- This week, Cuba used the mystery surrounding Fidel Castro's health to attract attention to the Nonaligned Movement summit in Havana.

With the help of ally Hugo Chavez, the country kicked-off an effort to revitalize the 116-member NAM organization and transform it into a force countering U.S. predominance in the world.

Hundreds of journalists poured into the country. It was the first time Cuba opened its doors to them since Castro underwent emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding and temporarily handed power to brother Raul Castro on July 31. They were far more interested in the 80-year-old revolutionary's health and that of the Caribbean island than the summit.

Cuba obliged: Pictures and video streamed from Castro's secret clinic showing Fidel Castro sitting and then standing as he met a few close allies, who then announced he was giving orders by phone, gaining weight, walking and even singing. Word Castro would not preside at the summit came only as the meeting opened on Friday.

"Fidel will be playing baseball soon," Chavez said after a chat with the commandante upon arrival, proceeding then to spew forth fiery anti-U.S. rhetoric at every opportunity and vow that NAM will become a force to be reckoned with.

"Chavez sees his role as inheriting Castro's international profile," said Frank Mora, a national security expert at the War College in Washington. "He will speak for the abused and the poor as Fidel did for decades. … Raul will be the successor in Cuba; Chavez, the successor in the international arena."

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with Fidel Castro immediately after arriving in Havana, the first personality outside the circle of confidants to visit him since he became ill.

Meanwhile, like a well-oiled machine, Castro's seconds-in-command worked the summit and press.

First Vice President and Defense Minister Raul Castro stood in for his brother, welcoming each country to Friday's summit opening over which he presided. It was Raul's international debut after serving his brother faithfully for 47 years on the domestic front.