In this photo released yesterday by Cuba's newspaper 'Granma', Cuba's leader Fidel Castro (right) meets with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Havana, last Tuesday. Castro said he is not yet healthy enough to speak to Cuba's people in person and can't campaign for Sunday's parliamentary elections. - AP
HAVANA (AP):
Fidel Castro said yesterday he is not yet healthy enough to speak to Cuba's people in person and can't campaign for Sunday's parliamentary elections.
"I am not physically able to speak directly to the citizens of the municipality where I was nominated for our elections next Sunday,'' the ailing 81-year-old wrote in an essay published yesterday by state news media.
Castro's latest essay focused on blasting United States President George W. Bush, but included references to the Cuban leader's health.
It was published on the front pages of state-run newspapers a day after Castro met for more than two hours with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said Castro appeared healthy enough to return to politics.
"I think Fidel is ready to take over his historic political role in this globalised world, in humanity,'' Silva told reporters as he left Cuba late on Tuesday. He did not suggest what role that might be.
Frustrated castro
Castro, however, expressed frustration in his essay: "I do what I can: I write. For me, this is a new experience: writing is not the same as speaking.''
Castro has not been seen in public since July 2006, when emergency intestinal surgery forced him to cede power to a provisional government headed by his younger brother Raul, five years his junior.
Raul Castro addressed a crowd of voters on December 24 in the brothers' home district in the eastern city of of Santiago, saying he was filling in for his brother. But yesterday's essay was the first time the older Castro has acknowledged he is not well enough to campaign for himself.
Though he stepped aside as Cuba's active president, Castro remains head of the Council of State. Re-election to the legislature, or National Assembly, is a necessary step if he is to continue to run the council.
