Chavez Says Castro Is Recovering

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is recovering and has been up and walking — in fact "almost jogging" — in recent days, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.

Chavez said Wednesday he was pleased to hear from Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage that the 80-year-old Castro was making a recovery. Lage, after meeting with Chavez, said: "We will have Fidel and we will have Raul for a lot more time."

Their hopeful remarks came less than a week after Chavez said Castro was "battling for his life."

"Lage told me that Fidel walked I don't know how many minutes yesterday," Chavez said Wednesday, noting he suspected Castro was watching his speech on television. "He's walking more than me, almost jogging. Maybe he's walking while watching us."

Chavez has regularly reported in generalities on Castro's health since July 31, when the Cuban leader announced he was temporarily stepping aside while he recovered from an intestinal operation and was provisionally ceding power to his brother Raul.

Chavez held up a letter and said, "I'm going to show you something, for those who say that Fidel is dying, that he can't talk, that he can't move."

The TV camera zoomed in on the letter and Castro's signature in black ink. "Look closely at the strokes of the signature. We are extremely happy, Fidel, about the news of your recuperation."

The Cuban government treats Castro's precise medical condition as a state secret.

Lage said that even though Fidel Castro is no longer in charge of presidential duties, Cuba's people "continue to be united, continue to be confident." In the future, he added, "when Raul is not there, Fidel will have recovered already."

Chavez read from a speech that Castro gave decades ago in Venezuela and praised him and other Cuban leaders, saying they "have been capable of resisting the pressures of imperialism, the threats, the blockades ... (by) the most powerful and cruel empire that has existed on the face of the earth, which is the U.S. empire."

Directing his comments to Washington, which favors a transition to multiparty democracy once Castro is gone, Chavez said: "When they threaten Cuba, they threaten Venezuela too."

"Every day, our unity grows," Chavez said, adding that the two countries had formed 21 joint ventures as they deepen already strong ties.

Chavez spoke at a ceremony where Venezuelan and Cuban officials signed a series of accords, including an agreement for Venezuela to send at least 100,000 poor Venezuelans to the island for no-cost vacations, using Cuba's state airline.

In attendance was a large delegation of top Cuban officials, including two of the six men Castro left in charge of the day-to-day running of his affairs since his illness last summer: Lage and Central Bank President Francisco Soberon, reports CBS News correspondent Portia Siegelbaum. Also present were Ramiro Valdez, minister of communications and one of the closest allies of the Castro brothers since their fight against the Batista regime, as well as the ministers of basic industry, foreign investment, tourism, agriculture and transportation. Practically all the major sectors of the Cuban economy are represented in the delegation.

Other accords included agreements to export Venezuelan rice to the island and plans to jointly produce stainless steel using Cuban nickel — a project slated to involve some $1.1 billion in joint investment.

The governments also signed agreements to form a joint telephone company and lay a 965-mile fiber optic cable across the Caribbean Sea connecting the countries.

"It's going to permit faster connections and lower costs," Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said.