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Newspaper releases Castro photos, remarks on 80th birthday
Reuters/Estudios Revolucion-Juventud Rebelde/Handout (CUBA)
Cuban leader Fidel Castro shows a copy of a newspaper in this undated photo released on August 13, 2006. A Cuban newspaper on Sunday published the first photographs of Fidel Castro since his stomach surgery and the Cuban leader said he had stabilized 'considerably' but was not out of the woods.
AFP
HAVANA
Petroleumworld.com 08 13 06
Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on his 80th birthday Sunday that he had improved "considerably" since being sidelined by surgery, but added a full recovery would take quite a while longer.
His remarks in a newspaper article were accompanied by the first pictures of the ailing leader taken since last month's operation, with Castro quoted as saying, "I'm very happy."
Castro told the state-run Juventud Rebelde newspaper it "would not be a lie" to say that his physical condition had improved, but added that "to say that the recovery time will be brief, and that there is no risk would be absolutely incorrect."
Four photos of the ailing leader accompanied his remarks. Castro urged Cubans to be "optimistic, but at the same time ready to confront any negative news."
He also thanked the Cuban people for their "loving support" during his convalescence.
Castro was photographed wearing a red-white-and-blue tracksuit jacket rather than his customary khaki fatigues. Two of the pictures show him speaking on the telephone. Another has him holding a newspaper with his own picture on the front page.
"I tell all those who wished me good health that I will fight for it," the paper quoted Castro as saying.
Castro has not been seen in public since before July 31, when a news anchor read a statement saying he had temporarily ceded power, for the first time since seizing power in 1959, to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, following intestinal surgery.
The Cuban state press said earlier that Castro was now walking and in good spirits, even if closer details of his health were kept a state secret.
An unidentified "friend" told Cuba's Granma newspaper in an article published Saturday that Castro was taking a few steps after physical therapy and conversing "animatedly."
"He's as strong as the caguairan," the Granma headline read, referring to a particularly sturdy tropical hardwood tree that grows in Cuba.
"Like the tree emblematic of Cuba, he is upright, strong (and) tough, ideal for building lasting works. Our friend saw El Comandante walking about, like someone looking forward to new victories," Granma wrote.
Cuban officials have insisted regularly over the past week that life in the Americas' only Communist country is "completely normal" as Castro recuperates, although neither he nor his brother have been seen in public.
Immediately after his surgery, Castro had asked that his birthday celebration be postponed until December 2, the 50th anniversary of his return from exile in Mexico to topple US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Yet the birthday bash went on.
A giant concert featuring musicians and dancers took place Saturday to honor Castro in what the official government information agency called "an expression of the people's strong and unified support for the revolution."
The concert was held outside the US Interests Section in Havana and lasted throughout the night.
Singer-songwriter Amaury Perez orchestrated the soiree, which also featured musicians Frank Fernandez, Rosita Fornes and Kiki Korona, as well as the groups Hipnosis, Karma and Eddy K.
The regime that has been in place since Castro marched his bearded revolutionaries into Havana on New Year's Day in 1959 desperately wants normality, and plans for Sunday's birthday celebration include a nationwide "cane mobilization," recalling the earliest days of the revolution, when idealistic young men and women cut sugar cane for the good of all.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was expected here later Sunday to give Castro his birthday greetings in person.
AFP 13 1307 GMT 08 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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