Stronger-looking Castro braves public eye

Published on Sunday 11 July 2010 16:49

NEW pictures of Fidel Castro show the stooped but smiling former leader venturing out to meet with workers at a Cuban scientific think tank - the first to show him in public since he became seriously ill four years ago.

Previously, Cuba had occasionally released pictures showing him in private meetings with dignitaries, most recently during a visit in February by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In those pictures, Castro looked cheerful and robust.

The latest batch of pictures of the tracksuit-clad Castro were posted this weekend on the blogs of two Cuban journalists and a media website.

Castro, 83, appears slightly stooped but otherwise healthy in the pictures, which were said to have been taken on Wednesday during a visit to the National Centre for Scientific Investigation in Havana.

The initial set of four photos appeared on the blogs of two official Cuban journalists and apparently were taken with a worker's mobile phone. Castro is seen raising his hand to wave in one picture and seemingly being led away in another.

More images from the same event were posted later on Cubadebate, a state-run media website. In those pictures, Castro is seen laughing and talking with workers, some of whom line an overhead walkway to wave and clap at him. In one, he leans back casually against a desk, looking animated.

"He is thin but he looks good, and according to our director, he is very good mentally," reads a comment accompanying photos on the blog of Rosa C Baez, a journalist who works for official Cuban media.

The comments were sent to her along with the photos by an unidentified worker, who said Castro stopped, said hello and blew kisses to the employees.

"They didn't let us get close to him, but when he left, there were too many people standing around and I was standing just three yards from him," gushed the worker.

Cuban media is strictly controlled by the government, and the fact the photos appeared on blogs of two official journalists and later on Cubadebate was significant. Cubadebate said the revolutionary icon visited the science centre to celebrate its 45th anniversary.

It was the first time that photos have been released of Castro in public since he fell seriously ill in July 2006. The illness forced him to turn over power - first temporarily, then permanently - to his younger brother Raul, who is 79.

The elder Castro remains head of Cuba's Communist Party. Even though he has stayed out of sight, he has maintained a public presence through opinion columns written for Cuba's state-run media, and still plays a role behind the scenes.

For more than a year, his columns have dwelt almost exclusively on international topics.

He has said he was told his columns on domestic issues were interfering with the government's work.

The two Castros have ruled Cuba since overthrowing dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Castro himself said last year that he does not think he will see US President Barack Obama re-elected in 2012 - though it was unclear if he was passing judgment on his own life expectancy or the political fortunes of the American leader.

His first public appearance in years comes as Cuba is preparing to release 52 political prisoners, all jailed in a crackdown on the opposition in 2003.

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