Castro addresses audience in Caracas by cell phone

Castro addresses audience in Caracas by cell phone
Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:14 AM BST

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - When Cuba's Fidel Castro couldn't honour
an invitation to join Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a speech on
Friday, Chavez called Castro on a cell phone from a packed Caracas
theatre and broadcast the conversation through the microphone.

"Brother, give your regards to the people gathered here," Chavez said.

The crowd broke into applause as Castro's raspy voice came crackling
across the microphone.

"You've put me on three times and I keep saying the same thing," said
Castro, lamenting the bad connection.

Chavez held the event to honour Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela to help
the nation's poor residents in exchange for crude from the world's No. 5
oil exporter.

When the phone call cut off, Chavez joked that his archrival U.S.
President George W. Bush was responsible.

"It looks like Mr. Danger intervened there," Chavez said, using his
nickname for the U.S. president.

Chavez, elected in 1998, has strengthened relations with Cuba as part of
a promised socialist "revolution" to end poverty. Increased economic
ties have helped revive Cuba's economy, which was devastated in the
1990s by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-04-22T011452Z_01_N21177078_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-CASTRO.XML