Castro laughs off CIA report he has Parkinson's
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-18 14:24

Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday dismissed a CIA assessment he is suffering from Parkinson's disease as a fabrication by his U.S. enemies who wish to see him dead.

"They say Castro has this or that illness. The last thing they invented is that I have Parkinson's," he said in a speech to University of Havana students. The 79-year-old Cuban leader spoke for more than five hours standing at a lectern.

A recent analysis by the CIA concluded Castro had Parkinson's and could have difficulty coping with the duties of office as his condition worsens, an official in Washington told Reuters on Wednesday.

Cuban President Fidel Castro talks to university students in Havana, November 17, 2005.[Reuters]

The nonfatal but debilitating disease had progressed far enough to warrant questions among U.S. policy-makers about the country's future in the next several years, the official said.

Castro, the target of CIA assassination attempts, said his longtime ideological enemies in Washington were now waiting for him to die of natural causes.

"They have killed me so many times," he said, referring to frequent rumors about his health that originate in the United States.

"They kill me every day. The day that I really die, nobody will believe me," he joked in the speech marking the 60th anniversary of the day he began his university studies.

"I don't care if I get Parkinson's. The pope (John Paul II) had Parkinson's and he spent years traveling around the world," Castro added. The pontiff died in April at 84.

Castro said he was recovering from a fall in October 2004 in which he smashed his left knee and fractured his right arm.

"I work longer hours than before. I feel better than ever," he said.

Castro's pace has slowed noticeably since the fall but his stamina appears unabated and he regularly gives long speeches.

Cuba and the United States have no diplomatic relations and Washington imposed an economic embargo on Havana 43 years ago.

Parkinson's is a chronic, irreversible disease that affects about 1 percent of people over the age of 65 worldwide.