Castrogula's video

Lets not waste time and question the veracity of video showing the walking dead.

Despite the photo, Castro lives on

Observer foreign staff
Sunday October 29, 2006
The Observer

After the days, weeks and months of rumours - each one turning out to be unfounded - that Cuba's leader of half a century had died, then came the picture. It was grainy, oddly sourced, but the real question was: What does it show? Castro, 80, dead from his battle with stomach cancer? Or just another piece of fakery in the slow departure of Fidel?

The face, at least, was right. The skin lesions, more visible on the right side of his face in recent months, were there. So was the beard and thinning hair. Last weekend South America's media was full of rumours that Fidel had died. As the week wore on, Brazil's President Lula da Silva spoke of him in the past tense. But last night, a defiant Castro appeared on Cuban state television for the first time in over a month denouncing the recent rumours as 'ridiculous'.

Questions are still being raised, however, about the source of the picture with the latest speculation alleging it came from a security source in Venezuela. In the photograph the border of the ribbon around Castro's neck looks strangely blurred on one side, while on the other it appears too visible through the beard, suggesting, perhaps, a head put on another body using the Photoshop image manipulation software. The face bears an uncanny resemblance to a picture of Castro taken sitting on a rocking chair released last month. Speaking defiantly on Cuban television, Castro said: 'Let's see what they say now.'