Castro celebrates 86th birthday but its Out of limelight

Fidel Castro, who led Cuba for a half century & became known worldwide for tens of Cold War era clashing with the United States, will celebrate his 86th birthday today far from the limelight.

Officially, there are no plans to publicly honor the communist country's 1 time "commander-in-chief," who tightly masterminded public life there from January 1959 until he suffered a health crisis in 2006 & delegated his duties to his brother Raul Castro.

On Monday, youth organizations plan to mark not the anniversary of Castro's birth but rather that of Rene Gonzalez, one of five Cuban secret service agents incarcerated in the United States considered "heroes of the war on terror" in their homeland.

And in some other sign of the times, Idalys Ortiz, who claimed Cuba's first Olympic judo title for 12 years, thanked her family, friends and Raul Castro, 81, before referencing the former president.

Fidel Castro has continued a low profile for months.

The father of the Cuban revolution last seemed in public in March, when he met Pope Benedict XVI on the pontiff's visit to the Caribbean country.

The longtime leader has also fallen behind in his once fertile publications.

His long "reflections" -- totaling 398 to date -- were once regularly printed in state media and read in full on state broadcasters.

Now, he pens just several lines every few months on topics that leave even his most loyal assistants perplexed.

While Castro once wrote about issues of international importance -- such as the environment & nuclear war -- he now glorifies the virtues of the protein-rich tropical moringa shrub. His latest piece appeared on June 19.

Cubans, many of whom openly consider them "Fidelities" even as they denounce the shortcomings of the communist regime, conceive their former leader spends his time in retirement on his property in west Havana, writing his memoirs and occasionally receiving foreign diplomats.