Ailing dictator appparently well enough to write
By Ray Sanchez | South Florida Sun Sentinel
11:04 AM EST, January 22, 2009
HAVANA - It appears ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is alive and well ,
and writing again -- in praise of new U.S. President Barack Obama.
The news came Wednesday after recent speculation that the 82-year-old
former president, who hasn't appeared publicly since he had major
intestinal surgery in July 2006, was near death. Rumors intensified
after he stopped writing newspaper columns last month and hadn't met
with a foreign dignitary since late November.
Late Wednesday, Castro broke a five-week silence with a short essay on a
government Web site, writing that he "did not have the slightest doubt
of the honesty of Obama ... when he expresses his ideas."
Earlier that same day, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez told
reporters that she and Castro met behind closed doors Wednesday for at
least an hour. She said that he seemed healthy and spent the day before
watching televised coverage of the Obama inauguration.
"We talked a lot about Obama," she said. "He had a very good impression
of Obama and he seemed to believe in what he said."
It was the elder Castro's first reported meeting with a foreign leader
since a Nov. 28 talk with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The
presidents of Panama and Ecuador visited earlier this month but left
without saying they had met with Castro, who did not attend New Year's
Day celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.
Curiously, however, the state-run Cuban newscast Wednesday evening
covered Fernandez's visit in detail, but made no mention of the meeting
with Castro.
Conjectures that Castro's health had deteriorated flared last week after
his close friend Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said it was unlikely
that the former leader would appear in public again.
Raul Castro, who accompanied Fernandez to the airport after an official
visit, dismissed talk that his older brother's health had worsened.
"Now you know that Fidel is fine," he said, adding that his brother
spends days "exercising, thinking and reading a lot, advising me,
helping me."
"You think if he were gravely ill that I'd be smiling here?" Raul Castro
told reporters. "Soon I'm going to take a trip to Europe. You think I
would leave here if Fidel were really in grave condition?"
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0122-fidel,0,6973270.story
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