Cubans wish absent Castro happy 80th birthday

"Fidel, Fidel, long live Fidel," chanted young Cubans at a birthday concert on Havana's Malecon seafront boulevard where 3,000 gathered to listen to a five-hour lineup of the island's top musical talent.

Castro did not make an appearance at the concert or issue a statement about his birthday.

Details of Castro's health are considered a state secret, so there has been little information about his condition or even confirmation he was alive following surgery for internal bleeding.

Raul Castro, 75, has not appeared in public either, adding to the uncertainty over the political future of one of the world's last communist outposts.

"We hope he (Fidel) gets better. For all oppressed people, Cuba is an example that socialism is possible," said Juan Carlos Cruz, a Bolivian studying medicine in Cuba for free. Students bused to the show held Cuban, Venezuelan and Bolivian flags.