The When?

Back when I was a young student and they were teaching me to write a story, the old professors would always harp on five questions that every article had to answer. What?, Why?, When?, Where, and Who?

Because the Where was in Cuba the four other W’s have been sketchy at best, but now we know more:

Who?: Fidel Castro Ruz, Tyrant, Dictator, Despot.

What?: Impeding Death due to at least 3 failed operations to treat either diverticulitis or Colon Cancer (same procedure)

Where?: Havana, Cuba

Why? He decided not to have a colostomy which caused complications.

When?: We have all assumed the first operation occurred in late July, probably the 27th.

Hmmm.?

Everybody is assuming that Castro had his initial operation on the 26th or 27th of July and handed power over on the evening of the 31st, July.

BUT ( I told you, there’s always a but with Cubans)

Rumors about Castro, started way before the 31st. They actually started around July 11 with a rumor circulated on Wall Street that Castro had died.

Back in July, we were all eagerly awaiting whether Castro would show up as planned at a MERCOSUR meeting in Argentina. He did. He had a confrontation with a Cuban reporter, went back to Cuba and then was felled by the diverticulitis.

Diverticulitis is not a disease that springs up over night to cause near-fatal intestinal bleeding. There are usually other milder symptoms starting at around age 60.

The rumors I’ve heard, albeit 2nd , 3rd …20th , hand, shed light on a possibly different timeline of Castro’s surgeries.

The rumors that he had colon cancer and had a “colostomy” before he went to Argentina sometime in the late spring early summer of 2006 were all over Miami and the internet.

It is possible that Castro’s initial surgery for diverciculitis occurred between April and July 2006.

The surgery that caused Castro to eventually give up power would have been the one that included the peritonitis and could have occurred on 26-28 July. At that time stress was blamed for his intestinal bleeding. Stress could have, in a patient his age, caused the stitches from the original operation to fail.

Smaller operations to clean and drain the wound could have occurred in between.

The third and more serious operation, would have occurred around 19 Dec also coinciding with Sabrido’s visit and more rumors of his death. This is the operation where they removed the intestine and installed the Spanish prosthesis for the bile duct inflammation.

Given the lack of facts about Castro’s condition, we all have to rely on conjecture and assumptions.

So, I’m going to adopt my new proposed timeline.

I choose to. Here’s why:

Castro was well on his way to recovery from his original surgery his colon was firmly attached to his rectum.

The Report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba came out. Stress UP.

He goes to Argentina to get his butt kissed by his leftist cronies.

Castro Killer Quest que cest ?

Then he met Juan Manuel Cao a Cuban born reporter who did what no reporter had ever done before, he called Castro out in public, really stressing him out. So much so that after he gave a couple of speeches on the 26th in his native Oriente, his stitches popped spewing crap all over his innards.

I like that version much better.

It changes the Why? A little bit. The truth did him in.

The Why

(courtesy of Cuban American Blog El Confeti)