Castro practically recovered: Cuba's Alarcon
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| Published on Saturday, June 2, 2007 |
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WASHINGTONUSA (AFP): Cuban leader Fidel Castro has nearly recovered from intestinal surgery, the third-most powerful man in Cuba said in an interview with CNN, without mentioning whether Castro would return to the presidency.
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| Cuba's National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon. AFP PHOTO |
"He practically -- practically we can say that he has fully recovered," said National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon.
"He still has to continue a very strict regime of exercising, rehabilitation," said Alarcon.
Castro, now 80, has been recovering from intestinal surgery since handing power over to his younger brother, Raul Castro, on July 31.
Castro has not been seen in public since, but has in recent weeks written a flurry of article for publication in official newspapers.
Most recently, he accused US President George W. Bush of trying to kill him. However, when asked, Alarcon did not offer evidence to support Castro's accusation.
Alarcon stuck to Cuba's policy of treating the nature of Castro's illness as a state secret by ducking a question about it: Castro "described the problem as a very delicate surgery that he has to have -- several, not just one surgery," Alarcon said.
"The worst moments are behind him."
Alarcon did not say whether Castro was expected to return to power as Cuba's leader.
Traveling in Madrid, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday called for a democratic transition in Cuba.
Reacting to the comment, Alarcon said: "I wish that someday there will be a democratic transition in the United States, that there will be a regime change in your country, a change from war to peace, a change from arrogance and this kind of interfering in everybody's affairs."
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