"Castro, who has not been seen in public for four months, wanted the delayed birthday celebration held on Dec. 2, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the date that he and fellow rebels landed by boat in Cuba to launch their revolution."

Four months?! Has it really been so long? The truth of the matter is, the last few months have played out very similarly to the deaths of previous dictatorial leaders who are the subjects of severe cults of personality. As Mario Loyola wrote in National Review back in August, "In Communist societies, the fall of a dictator is often marked by a public statement about the dictator’s failing health that (a) doesn’t make sense, and (b) is not delivered by the dictator himself."
That certainly happened back when Castro first fell ill. But at his birthday party, a new statement, again a letter supposedly written by Castro that was read by a supposed subordinate, doesn't even sound like the man. To whit:
"I direct myself to you, intellectuals and prestigious personalities of the world, with a dilemma. I could not meet with you in a small locale, only in the Karl Marx Theater where all the visitors would fit, and I was not yet in condition, according to the doctors, to face such a colossal encounter. ... My very close friends, who have done me the honor of visiting our country, I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give thanks and hugs to each and every one of you."

That simply doesn't read like Fidel. It lacks that certain flowery quality that festoons the man's writing and adds to the infamous length of his marathon speeches. One could chalk this up to the fact that the man is sick, and therefore is tending toward brevity in all things, but at this point, Occam's Razor seems more and more to suggest that Fidel is already gone -- in a coma at best, in hell at worst.

At this point, I expect his next public appearance to look something like this:

Cuban Leader Fidel Castro, allegedly dead