Cuban leader Fidel Castro stayed away from a massive May Day workers parade today nine months after emergency surgery forced him to step aside as president.
Castro had called on all Cubans to turn the parade into an anti-US protest and, after recent video footage showed him looking stronger, there was speculation that he might make a triumphant return to Revolution Square.
A man stands on his balcony next to a banner of Cuba's President Fidel yesterday. Image: Reuters.
But he did not appear, the first time in almost four decades that he has missed a May Day parade.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said over the weekend that his political idol was already back "in charge" in Cuba, and Bolivian President Evo Morales said he was sure Castro would reappear on May 1st.
Castro himself gave no indication he would attend in an editorial column late on Monday, in which he urged Cubans to protest the recent release from a US prison of Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro exile and former CIA operative.
Castro was forced to hand power to Raul Castro, his younger brother and defence minister, after undergoing intestinal surgery last July.
Since then, Cubans have only seen him in photographs or video footage meeting with foreign dignitaries or speaking with Mr Chavez by telephone.
The most recent footage showed Castro looking stronger after regaining some of the weight he had lost, but he still appeared frail. His long absence and government secrecy over his illness have cast uncertainty over Cuba's political future.
As marchers poured through Havana today, many pledged loyalty to the man known as "El Comandante" for leading a 1959 revolution and setting up communist rule on the island just 90 miles from the United States.