February 11, 2009 2:46 PM
- Text
Castro Seen In Rare TV Appearance
(CBS)
The following was reported and written by CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum in Havana, Cuba.
Cubans got a brief glimpse of their former president, Fidel Castro, on video released on their main evening newscast Tuesday.
Castro, who was sidelined by complications following intestinal surgery in 2006, was seen with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro, his younger brother who took over the presidency of the island in elections last February.
A thin but animated Castro, dressed in an open-neck track suit over pajamas, is seen in a spirited conversation with the other two men in an unidentified garden setting. There is no audio, but the government news anchor said the three were discussing the global food crisis and the U.S. elections, among other issues.
It's been exactly five months since video and photos of Castro, 81, have been made public. The last occasion was in mid-January, when he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The official Cuban media reports that Castro met with Chavez for three hours on Monday and for two hours Tuesday before the Venezuelan leader left for home.
In the video, said to be from Tuesday's meeting, Castro, who is seen both sitting and standing, is making his trademark hand gestures as he speaks vigorously. Nothing was said about the state of his health, which remains a closely guarded secret, and it is impossible to draw any conclusions from the latest video, especially as he cannot be heard speaking, nor is he seen walking.
No pictures were released when Chavez visited Castro last March, nor when he was visited by Bolivian President Evo Morales last month. Morales said following that meeting that the elder Castro was "thin but lucid."
Venezuelan state television broadcast remarks made by Chavez before his departure from Cuba Tuesday describing their conversation:
"We were revising the entire plan for energy exchanges and the strengthening of refinery capacity and production of petroleum and petrochemicals."
Cubans got a brief glimpse of their former president, Fidel Castro, on video released on their main evening newscast Tuesday.
Castro, who was sidelined by complications following intestinal surgery in 2006, was seen with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro, his younger brother who took over the presidency of the island in elections last February.
A thin but animated Castro, dressed in an open-neck track suit over pajamas, is seen in a spirited conversation with the other two men in an unidentified garden setting. There is no audio, but the government news anchor said the three were discussing the global food crisis and the U.S. elections, among other issues.
It's been exactly five months since video and photos of Castro, 81, have been made public. The last occasion was in mid-January, when he met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The official Cuban media reports that Castro met with Chavez for three hours on Monday and for two hours Tuesday before the Venezuelan leader left for home.
In the video, said to be from Tuesday's meeting, Castro, who is seen both sitting and standing, is making his trademark hand gestures as he speaks vigorously. Nothing was said about the state of his health, which remains a closely guarded secret, and it is impossible to draw any conclusions from the latest video, especially as he cannot be heard speaking, nor is he seen walking.
No pictures were released when Chavez visited Castro last March, nor when he was visited by Bolivian President Evo Morales last month. Morales said following that meeting that the elder Castro was "thin but lucid."
Venezuelan state television broadcast remarks made by Chavez before his departure from Cuba Tuesday describing their conversation:
"We were revising the entire plan for energy exchanges and the strengthening of refinery capacity and production of petroleum and petrochemicals."
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