Monday, 14 August 2006August 14, 2006 - 4:37 AM
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said his recovery could take time and cautioned Cubans to be ready for bad news, while acting president Raul Castro stepped into his brother's public role by greeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he arrived for a visit.
Nearly two weeks after Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother -- the first change of control in the communist Caribbean nation in 47 years -- Cubans finally got a look at both men on Sunday.
Fidel Castro appeared in photographs to reassure Cubans he was still alive on his 80th birthday. Raul Castro met Chavez, a top Cuba ally, with a salute and a hug at the Havana airport.
The communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde published what it said were current pictures of Fidel Castro, along with a cautionary message attributed to the leader saying he faced a long recovery.
"I suggest you be optimistic and, at the same time, always prepared to receive bad news," he said in his message.
"To say the stability has improved considerably is not to tell a lie. To say that the period of recovery will be short and there is now no risk would be absolutely incorrect," Castro said in the message posted on the youth daily's Web site (http://www.juventudrebelde.cu).
The four pictures were the first of Castro since he ceded power on July 31 due to surgery to stop intestinal bleeding.
They showed Castro from the waist up, wearing a track suit in a bedroom. In one, he was holding a birthday supplement published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma on Saturday, apparently to show the pictures were current.
Venezuela's presidential press office said Chavez met with Castro but did not describe the meeting. In Bolivia, President Evo Morales sang "Happy Birthday, comandante" to Castro on Sunday and vowed to take him a birthday cake made with coca leaves -- the raw material used to make cocaine.
News that their leader had reappeared and was on the mend came as a relief to many Cubans worried his death could create upheaval in one of the world's last communist outposts. Others were more sceptical about the picture and thought his condition was worse than the nation was being told.
Details of Castro's health are considered a state secret. It is not known just what kind of operation he underwent, nor whether he will be able to resume his government duties.
Castro is the last of the key Cold War-era figures on the world stage and has survived 10 U.S. presidents, despite efforts to oust him. He also survived the collapse of Cuba's benefactor, the Soviet Union.
(Additional reporting by Marc Frank in Havana and Eduardo Garcia in Caranavi, Bolivia)
14 August 2006, Swissinfo |
Monday, 14 August 2006
Cuba
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