Chavez: Castro is in great battle for life

Chavez: Castro is in `great battle for life'

Venezuelan leader also says message from Cuba left him full of optimisim

By Natalie Obiko Pearson
The Associated Press
Posted August 11 2006

MUNICIPIO INDEPENDENCIA, Venezuela · President Hugo Chavez said Thursday
his close friend and ally Fidel Castro is in a "great battle for life,"
but he also expressed optimism about the 79-year-old Cuban leader's
recovery.

"From here, let's pray to God for Fidel and his recovery, and he's
fighting a great battle," Chavez said in a televised speech from the
eastern state of Anzoategui.

His statement was the most dire yet from a close Castro ally in
describing the 79-year-old Cuban leader's condition.

Chavez said he had received a message from Castro on Wednesday "that
filled me with more optimism, with more faith."

"Among other things Fidel told me ... `I keep saying Chavez, God help
Chavez and his friends,'" Chavez said.

"I wrote to him in my own handwriting last night, in the early morning,
to send it with the messenger who was returning immediately: `You are
fighting a great battle every day, all these nights,'" Chavez said.

Castro said July 31 he was stepping aside temporarily, granting his
powers to his brother Raúl as head of the government and the Communist
Party so he could recover from intestinal surgery.

Neither brother has been seen in public since then. Details of Castro's
condition, his ailment and the surgical procedure he underwent are being
treated as a "state secret."

Chavez said Thursday that in his letter to Castro, "I told him, `Here
we're with you every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every
night of that great battle for life that you are fighting from your
heart, from your soul.'"

"It's a battle, and I know, Fidel, that we're going to win it, too. We
are prevailing and we will prevail," Chavez said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-acastro11aug11,0,6794216.story?track=rss