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02/04/13 - GlobalPost - Fidel Castro makes surprise appearance in Cuba

Stooped and using a cane, Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has
taken the country by surprise by turning out to vote in legislative
elections, after a three-month absence from public view.

The 86-year-old Castro cast his ballot at a school in Havana's El Vedado
neighborhood on Sunday, engaging in an animated give-and-take with
reporters at the polling station and voters for more than an hour.

The elections were to choose 612 members of the National Assembly as well
as deputies of local legislatures, with the number of candidates equal to
the number of available seats, so Castro easily stole the show.

His rare public appearances often have served to tamp down rumors about his
own health, but Castro used this occasion to talk about improvements in the
health of his good friend and ally Hugo Chavez, who is convalescing in
Cuba.

The Venezuelan president is "much better, recovering," Castro said of the
58-year-old Chavez, who himself has not been seen or heard from since
December 10, when he traveled to Havana for his fourth round of cancer
surgery.

"It has been a tough struggle but he has been improving," Castro said in
comments carried by the official Granma newspaper, adding: "We have to cure
him. Chavez is very important for his country and for Latin America."

Castro said he gets daily reports on the health of Chavez, whose survival
is also crucial to Cuba, which depends on Venezuela for cut-rate oil and
trade as well as international political support.

Castro, who turned over the country's leadership to his brother Raul in
2006 after he fell ill, also took the opportunity to throw darts at the
United States, his adversary of more than half a century.

"I am convinced that Cubans are really a revolutionary people," said
Castro, who came to power in a 1959 revolution.

"I don't have to prove it. History has already proven it. And 50 years of
the US blockade have not been -- nor will it be -- able to defeat us."

The United States slapped a commercial, economic, and financial embargo
against Cuba in October 1960 after Castro's revolutionary government
nationalized the properties of United States citizens and corporations.

It was broadened to become a near-total embargo in 1962 as Cuba's alliance
with the Soviet bloc became apparent.

Images shown on Cuban TV as well as pictures in the newspaper Juventud
Rebelde showed a slightly stooped Castro with a cane. He wore a dark shirt
and a bomber jacket.

In his comments, the revolutionary leader also praised the creation of the
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), whose presidency
Cuba formally assumed last week at a summit in Santiago, Chile.

Set up in Caracas in December 2011 at the behest of Chavez, CELAC groups
all nations from across the Americas except the United States and Canada.

The Cuban chairmanship of the group marked Havana's full regional
reintegration and was seen as a major diplomatic coup for Communist-ruled
Cuba.

"This was a step forward which we owe to the efforts of many people,
including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez," Castro said.

Castro had not been seen in public since October 21, when he accompanied
Elias Jaua, who is now Venezuela's foreign minister, to the Hotel Nacional.

The Cuban leader's long absences from public view have fueled rumors that
his health has worsened, that he was dead or on his death bed.

He turned over the Cuban presidency to his brother Raul in 2008 two years
after falling seriously ill and undergoing intestinal surgery.

Since then, he has kept his hand in by writing frequent editorials,
publishing books about the revolution, and welcoming a few international
leaders in private events.

On Thursday, according to state media reports, he hosted former Brazilian
president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva.

About 8.5 million Cubans took part in the polls that featured no opposition
candidates. Authorities billed the event as a celebration of Cuban
democracy, "which is different" from those in other countries.

But Cuban dissidents blasted the vote.

"What strange elections, in which there is no choice and all the candidates
think the same," wrote dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez. "It's an electoral
farce."

rd/jm/sst


Original Source / Fuente Original:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130204/fidel-castro-makes-surprise-appearance-cuba-1