A visually impaired girl reads from a textbook at the Abel Santamaria special school in Havana on Monday. As rumours surface about Castro's death, Cubans have been more interested in getting on with their lives. - Reuters

HAVANA (Reuters):

Cuban leader Fidel Castro's long absence from public view has fueled wild rumours among his exiled opponents in Miami in recent weeks that he is dead, even one that Russian embalmers were at work preserving his body.

In Cuba, confident Communist Party officials who have been relaxing at the beach are back in town with suntans to show and not an inkling of concern over Castro's health or the country's future without him.

"Don't believe a word. It's all a fabrication by the Miami crowd," said an aide to a senior Cuban official.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque set off this week on a visit to Iran, a sure sign that Castro is not at death's door, commented a Western diplomat.

Castro, 81, has not appeared in public since he underwent life-threatening bowel surgery that forced him to hand over power 13 months ago to his brother Raul, 76.

Few Cubans have access to the Internet, so most had no clue of the rumour frenzy in Miami, set off by two blogs that declared Castro dead on August 24. One falsely reported that South Florida police were on alert and that Cuban media had been playing classical music for two hours prior to an imminent announcement.

On the streets of Havana, Cubans say they have no doubt the ailing leader is alive, even though the country has not seen video footage of him or heard his voice for three months.

Many Cubans appear too busy making ends meet to reflect on Castro's health, let alone read or listen to the regular columns attributed to him in the party newspaper Granma and read out repeatedly on state media.

"He is alive, I'm sure," said Genaro, a sports coach who misses the 1980s when Cuba received Soviet aid, the peso had purchasing power and Cubans could stay at hotels now reserved for tourists.

"With or without Fidel, Cubans are too busy getting by to think about his absence," he said, complaining about the dire economic straits in Cuba, where monthly wages average US$15.