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Social media sites abuzz with rumors of Castro’s death

By Tere Figueras Negrete and Kathleen McGrory, The Miami Herald –

MIAMI — Rumors swirled Friday that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died. But reports from a blogger and Fidel Castro’s son said he was fine.

“El Comandante is well, following his daily routine, reading, exercising,” Alex Castro was reported to have said.

U.S. State Department officials provided no information on the matter.

“We have seen reports of the rumors but we have no comment on them,” spokesman William A. Ostick wrote in a statement.

Rumors of the retired leader’s alleged passing had been circulating online since Sunday, when Castro did not congratulate Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez on winning re-election.

Later in the week, Venezuelan political columnist Nelson Bocaranda reported that Cuban government officials were planning an important public announcement.

But it wasn’t until Friday, when Bocaranda reported that Castro’s sister Juanita, who has been living in exile since the early 1960s, had been summoned to Cuba for an “important family announcement,” that the rumor mill went wild.

“My telephone hasn’t stopped ringing,” Tweeted Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez from Havana, who was recently recognized as one of the 50 most influential people in Latin America. “Everyone is asking about the health of Fidel Castro, but I don’t have any certainty. There are only rumors.”

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2006, when he turned over power to his brother Raúl to address his declining health.

He was last seen in public in March during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island.

Social media sites and local blogs were predictably atwitter Friday — although even those among the exile community who most fervently opposed Castro took a wary, if not weary, view.

“Rumors that Fidel Castro is dead, must be October …” read a post from Babalublog.com’s Val Prieto, accompanied by an image of a zombified Fidel, complete with tattered track-suit and bugged-out eyes.

Responded poster FreedomForCuba: “Sooner than later he’ll make his grandiose entrance into Hell. … Keep the champagne ready… just in case it happens when least expected.”

Prieto had linked to a Wednesday article on the website Neoclubpress.com, purporting to confirm Castro’s death Wednesday alongside an article by author Armando Anel, an occasional contributor to El Nuevo Herald. The website said it received confirmation of Castro’s death from a “source we can’t reveal for elementary reasons.”

Among the flood of responses reflecting various degrees of delight and dismay was a certain amount of skepticism:

“He’s dead again?” a poster called Travisnise wrote in Spanish. “What did he die of this time?”

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