Live appearance Cuban leader's first since illness
By ANITA SNOW | The Associated Press
October 15, 2007
HAVANA - Fidel Castro made his first live appearance on Cuban airwaves
since falling ill 14 months ago, sounding lucid and in good humor as he
exchanged praise and jokes Sunday with the Venezuelan president.
Castro's telephone call to a television and radio program came minutes
after visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez aired a new videotape of
their weekend meeting in which he sang revolutionary hymns to Castro and
called him "father of all revolutionaries."
"I am very touched when you sing about Che," Castro told Chavez during
his hour-long call to Chavez's Alo, Presidente! program — referring to
revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara, to whom the program was dedicated.
"There is electricity in the air," Chavez said, obviously pleased with
Castro's call.
Castro, who has not appeared in public since falling ill in July 2006,
made his last live media appearance in February with a phone call to
Chavez's radio program broadcast from Venezuela.
On the videotape, reportedly made during a meeting of more than four
hours Saturday afternoon, Chavez also gave Castro a painting he said he
made while imprisoned in the early 1990s after leading a failed coup.
The dark-colored painting showed the bars of his cell and a night scene
beyond, with a full red moon and a guard tower in the distance.
Castro told him he needed to sign his work. "No one knows the merit that
this has, that you did this!" he said.
Cuban state television was broadcasting Chavez's program live from Santa
Clara, where the communist government last week marked the 40th
anniversary of Guevara's death.
Chavez toured the museum below the towering statue of Guevara, which
also contains a mausoleum housing Guevara's remains.
Earlier Sunday, Cuban state media released two new official photos of
the men together, but provided no details about the ailing Cuban
leader's health.
In both the video and the photographs, Castro wore the red, white and
blue track suit that has become his typical dress during his
convalescence. Both men sat in bamboo chairs at an undisclosed location.
Although Castro looks older and his gray beard has thinned considerably,
he appears lucid and animated as he thumbs through a copy of Guevara's
Bolivian Diary and the pair discuss the revolutionary's life and legacy.
Both men seemed mindful that the leadership of Latin America's left is
being passed from one generation to another, with Chavez calling Castro
"the father of all revolutionaries in this America" in the video.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flacubacastro1015nboct15,0,1755964.story
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