And where is Castro?

Hundreds of thousands of cheering workers marched through Cuba's Revolution Plaza on Tuesday but Fidel Castro was nowhere to be seen.

The place where Castro would have watched the festivities (a raised platform under a towering statue of Cuban colonial independence hero Jose Marti) was instead occupied by his brother Raul.

Castro had attended the annual International Workers' Day march for decades. But the 80-year-old communist leader has not been seen in public since emergency intestinal surgery forced him to step down temporarily nine months ago and temporarily cede his duties to his 75-year-old brother.

In a speech just before the huge annual parade began, Salvador Valdes, secretary general of Cuba's central workers union, hinted it was highly unlikely that Castro would make his first public appearance since stepping down from power.

Occasional government photographs and videos of the elder Castro have assured Cubans he is still alive and recovering, appearing stronger and more robust in the most recent images.

But the urgent need by many to see the man who ruled this country for 47 straight years seems to have faded in recent months as life has continued normally under the leadership of Raul Castro.

There will be smaller marches Monday in cities around the island, with the government expecting several million of the nation's 11 million people to participate.

Those gathered in Havana protested the recent U.S. court decision to free on bond anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles, pending his trial on U.S. immigration charges. Havana accuses the Cuban-born Posada of orchestrating a 1976 airliner bombing that killed 73 people (a charge he denies).

Demonstrators held signs and banners declaring "Prison for the Executioner" in reference to Posada, accusing the Bush administration of a double standard on terrorism.