***scroll for updates***

Getting info. Stand by.

File photo of Fidel and his bro, WaPo

ABC News.com/AP:

Fidel Castro announced Monday night in a letter read by his secretary live on state television that due to illness he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his brother and successor Raul, the defense minister.

In the letter read by his secretary Carlos Valenciaga, Castro said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, and had to undergo an operation.

The tireless Val Prieto at Babalu Blog is covering it:

All local stations are dispatching reporters to Little Havana as we speak. It is being reported that after the surgery, fidel castro would be out of commission for two months. Anyone that has had an elderly family member in the hospital knows that their frailty can and does lead to complications. Again, let’s all hope that the complications are many and their outcomes fatal.

I will second that.

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Flashback: Vbspurs asked “What will happens when Castro dies” back in March during a previous Fidel Death Watch alert and offers some predictions about media behavior.

Update: Jim Hoft has video of Castro showing his ghoulish side in Argentina.

Slapstick Politics caught CNN glorifying the Castro regime a few days ago.

Daniel Freedman blogged a recent court decision in Miami that keeps pro-Castro propaganda on public school bookshelves.