ALAN CLENDENNING IN RIO DE JANEIRO
FIDEL Castro is "battling for his life", according to Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, who spoke with the ailing Cuban leader for nearly
half an hour several days ago.
Chavez, a close ally and admirer of Castro, compared his attempt to
recover from an unspecified medical condition to the 1950s, when the
Cuban leader was a guerrilla in the country's eastern mountains fighting
the government he would come to overthrow.
"Fidel is in the Sierra Maestra again, battling for his life," Chavez
said after attending a summit of South American leaders in Rio de Janeiro.
Castro, 80, has not been seen in public since shortly before July 31,
2006, when he announced he was temporarily stepping aside to recover
from an operation.
He has provisionally ceded power to his brother Raul, the 75-year-old
defence minister. Castro's medical condition is a state secret, but
Cuban authorities deny he is suffering from terminal cancer, as US
intelligence officials have claimed. Cuban officials have nonetheless
stopped insisting that Castro will return to power.
In another speech last week, Chavez called Castro's situation "delicate"
but dismissed as speculation Spanish press reports portraying Castro as
near death after three failed operations and complications resulting
from the intestinal infection diverticulitis.
Chavez said he could not give any more details about Castro's condition
"because I'm not the doctor who's caring for Fidel".
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