HAVANA -- (AP) -- Marching 1 1/2 miles in a display of vigor after a fainting spell last month, President Fidel Castro led more than a million people in a parade Thursday commemorating the start of the Cuban Revolution.

 Dressed in his usual olive green uniform, and white sneakers for walking, the Cuban president who turns 75 next month waved a small Cuban flag as he led the crowd down Havana's coastal Malecon highway.

 Castro marched for about 20 minutes, covering about 1 1/2 miles of the 3 1/2-mile route past the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission here. State television
 estimated the number of marchers at 1.2 million.

 He did not address the crowd.

 July 26, known here as National Rebellion Day, is among the most important dates on communist Cuba's calendar. In commemorates the armed attack Castro led in the wee hours of July 26, 1953, on the Moncada army barracks in the eastern city of Santiago.

 While Castro led a similar July 26 march in Havana last year, Cubans had wondered aloud if ``El Comandante'' would march this year, following his brief fainting spell last month during a speech under the broiling sun. It was the first incident of its kind during Castro's 42-year rule.

 After a few days' rest, Castro has resumed his busy schedule of meetings, state dinners, speeches and other public appearances. Castro and fellow communist leaders have insisted he is in good health.

 Marchers protested the embargo and other American policies toward Cuba, and demanded the release of five Cuban agents convicted in Miami earlier this year on
 espionage charges.

 Havana says the five men were merely gathering information about anti-Castro groups in Miami to defend their country against violent attacks.

 ``Free the patriotic heroes!'' yelled the marchers, many of whom wore white T-shirts emblazoned with images of the five Cuban men currently jailed in Miami while awaiting sentencing in the espionage case.

 A Miami jury on June 8 convicted three of the men -- Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labaniño and Antonio Guerrero -- of espionage conspiracy for efforts to penetrate U.S. military bases even though they obtained no U.S. secrets. They face life in prison.

 Hernández was also convicted of contributing to the death of four American fliers whose planes were shot down Feb. 24, 1996, by Cuban MiGs off the island's coast.

 The two others, Fernando González and Rene González, who are not related, face up to 10 years for conspiracy and failing to register as foreign agents.

                                   © 2001