Castro 'stable and in good spirits'
CUBA: Fidel Castro, who has dominated Cuba for nearly 50 years, told
his people on Tuesday he was in good spirits and stable after undergoing
surgery and temporarily relinquishing power to his brother.
"I can say it is a stable condition, but a real evolution of the
state of my health needs time," Castro, 79, said in a statement read out
on state television. He did not appear on the screen.
"I am in perfectly good spirits," he said. "The most I can say is
that the situation will remain stable during many days before a verdict
can be given."
The ailing communist leader handed over the presidency temporarily to
his younger brother Raul on Monday after having an operation to stop
gastrointestinal bleeding.
Castro, who had claimed he delegated power because Cuba was under
threat from the United States, said the Cuban armed forces were prepared
to defend the nation.
Television journalist Randy Alonso said he spoke to Castro minutes
before going on air and the Cuban leader asked him to broadcast his
words to the nation.
In Washington, the Bush administration, which has tightened the
decades-long U.S. embargo with Cuba, dismissed any possibility of a
softer stance toward the provisional new leader Raul Castro.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a long-time friend of
Castro, said Cubans alone should decide on a possible presidential
successor.
"The succession process is a decision the Cuban people will have to
take," Lula told reporters in Brasilia. He added that Castro may recover
and that "the situation may not be as bad as it appears."
In Cuba, where Castro's guerrillas once swept down from the Sierra
Maestra hills to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictator, word of his illness
brought apprehension over the future of the Caribbean island nation of
11 million.
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon sought to calm concern
that Castro was dying. "The Cuban leader will always fight until the
last moment. But that last moment is very far away," he said.
Castro, who last appeared in public giving a July 26 speech, said in
a "proclamation" read out by an aide on television on Monday that his
ill health was caused by overexerting himself during travels last month.
Venezuela, whose leftist President Hugo Chavez has become a close
ally of Castro, said in a statement that Castro's recovery was
"advancing positively," citing information from the Cuban government.
But medical experts said surgery for major bleeding in a elderly man
is risky and could require several months of rest.
Havana, Wednesday, Reuters |