Chavez: Castro sent me a note

Posted on Fri, Aug. 11, 2006

VENEZUELA
Chávez: Castro sent me a note
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says he received a message from Fidel
Castro, who's in a `great battle for life.'
BY PHIL GUNSON
Special to The Miami Herald

CARACAS - In what appeared to be one of his usual rhetorical flourishes,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Thursday that Fidel Castro was in
a ``great battle for life.''

But he quickly added that he had received a message from the ailing
Cuban leader, who will be 80 on Sunday, that ''filled me with more
optimism and more faith'' about a recovery following intestinal surgery.

''From here we accompany you each second, each minute, each hour, each
day of this great battle for life that you are waging from your heart,
from your soul,'' Chávez said in a televised speech from the eastern
state of Anzoategui.

Castro has not been seen in public since July 31, when a Cuban
government official read a statement from him saying he was ceding power
to his brother, Defense Minister Raúl Castro. His condition has been
declared a ``state secret.''

While Chávez's account of receiving a message from Fidel -- and sending
another back -- underlined his standing as a virtual protégé of the aged
Cuban leader, Caracas was rife with speculation about an alleged cooling
of the usually warm relations.

The rumors were sparked by the fact that shortly after Castro's surgery,
Chávez appointed his brother Adán, who had been ambassador to Havana, as
minister of the presidency -- in effect, his chief of staff. No
replacement for Adán has yet been appointed.

Some media commentators here have suggested that Adán's withdrawal might
somehow indicate a cooling of relations, which have revolved around the
personal rapport and shared political objectives of Chávez and Fidel Castro.

This version seemed to be bolstered by the fact that Chávez learned of
Castro's health crisis from television while on an official visit to
Vietnam, and that none of his public statements suggest he has spoken
directly to the Cuban leader.

Alberto Garrido, author of several books on Chávez, cautioned against
reading too much into the few known facts.

''Chávez's relationship with Castro grew without Adán,'' he says, and
the appointment of Adán to the Cabinet is part of a domestic agenda and
not directly linked to the relationship with Havana. ''A much more
hard-line phase [of Chávez rule] is beginning,'' Garrido argues, ``and
Chávez needs a reliable and radical team around him.''

Adán Chávez, who is older than his brother, was involved with
clandestine pro-guerrilla groups before Hugo -- then a young army
officer -- was recruited for the conspiracy that ultimately led to his
failed 1992 coup attempt. He was elected president in 1998.

But according to Américo Martín, a veteran of Venezuela's Cuban-backed
guerrilla groups of the 1960s and author of a new book on Cuba, Chávez
and Raúl Castro hold different views on the future of the island. Raúl,
he says, favors the application of the Chinese model, under which the
Communist Party would retain its monopoly on power but allow the
introduction of capitalism. 'But Fidel and Chávez both seek the fall of
capitalism and the American `empire.' ''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/15247770.htm