I’M Gaining Ground, Castro Tells Chavez Phone-in ; WORLD

By Elizabeth Nash

Fidel Castro chatted on the phone with the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, for 30 minutes in a live broadcast early yesterday, the first time the ailing Cuban leader has spoken publicly since emergency surgery forced him from power in July.

“I’m gaining ground. I feel I have more energy, more strength and more time to study,” President Castro said, speaking slowly but confidently during a relaxed conversation broadcast live on Venezuelan radio.

The conversation formed an apparently unscheduled highspot of President Chavez’s regular chatshow, Al Presidente, and was accompanied by video footage of the Venezuelan leader’s last visit to Mr Castro’s sickbed in Havana in January. Cuban television later interrupted its nightly news programme to broadcast the exchange.

The Venezuelan leader broke into English at one point to ask: “Fidel, how are you?” The Cuban leader, 80, barely missed a beat before replying “very well”, to applause and laughter from the studio audience.

The telephone encounter was reported extensively on the websites of Spanish newspapers yesterday, complete with video and audio coverage.

It seems that the Cuban leader took the initiative to call President Chavez, who sounded surprised to receive an on-air call from Havana. “You don’t know how happy we are to hear your voice and know that you are well,” Mr Chavez said.

The veteran Cuban leader showed that he had been keeping up with the news, commenting that the plunge on the American and Chinese stock markets earlier that day showed that capitalism was in crisis.

The two old friends chatted for more than 30 minutes, although Mr Castro confessed he had been listening in to the programme for a while before he phoned. “Everything’s OK and the country is running smoothly, that’s the important thing,” he said.

The former leader handed power temporarily to his brother, Raul, on 31 July last year, following an emergency operation to stem intestinal bleeding. Since then, the Cubans have declared his medical condition “a state secret”.

The Spanish doctor who treated Mr Castro in Havana in December, Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, dismissed speculation in the United States that he was suffering from cancer.

Medical sources at the Spanish hospital where Dr Sabrido is chief surgeon said in January that the Cuban leader had suffered complications from three botched operations, and was very ill.

Amid an official media blackout, President Chavez has become Mr Castro’s de facto health spokesman – “a sort of emissary, a source”, as the Venezuelan leader said with evident satisfaction during their conversation.

For seven months, President Chavez has maintained contact with Mr Castro by phone or visits, and has spoken frequently about his medical condition, state of mind, prospects for recovery and the future of Cuba and Venezuela – such snippets being virtually the only news available to Cubans, and the world.

Raul Castro said in a rare statement two weeks ago that his brother was “getting better every day”. He said he had a telephone by him “that he uses a lot”.

(c) 2007 Independent, The; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.