Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Castro video raises questions about recovery

Posted on Tue, Jun. 05, 2007

CUBA
Castro video raises questions about recovery
Fidel Castro remained hospitalized even as he met with leaders and amid
reports of recuperation.
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@miamiherald.com

The video footage of Fidel Castro released last weekend appears to have
been shot in the same hospital where he met with a visiting Chinese
delegation on April 21.

If Castro indeed is still hospitalized more than 10 months after he
underwent emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding, it would indicate
that while he continues to recuperate, he's either not out of the woods
or he has ultra-cautious doctors.

Castro is expected to appear on Cuban television again today in an
interview with a Cuban news anchor. A short clip of that interview that
aired Monday night indicated that it took place in the same hospital room.

The weekend images from a meeting with Vietnamese Communist Party chief
Nong Duc Manh showed a more robust Castro in the same red, white and
blue track suit that he wore for the April meeting with Wu Guanzheng, a
member of China's Communist Party politburo.

The Chinese media later released photos and a video of the meeting and
reported that it took place in a hospital. A comparison of the two
videos shows what appear to be the same furniture, windows, curtains and
decorative plants.

The images from both encounters were broadcast on Cuban television and
published in newspapers.

''What little empirical evidence we have -- his own claims, plus footage
and testimony from people who've met with him -- all seems to bear out
that he does appear to be getting better gradually,'' said William
LeoGrande, a Cuba expert with American University in Washington. ``But
it's clear that [his illness] was extremely serious.

''People aren't in the hospital for a whole year unless they are
extremely ill,'' LeoGrande said. ``Until he's really back in public in a
regular way, no one really knows if he is fully recovered.''

After 47 years of absolute control over the island, Castro handed over
power to his brother Raúl Castro on July 31, 2006, and has not appeared
in public since July 26.

http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/128835.html

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