Fidel Castro appeared alert and upbeat in his first television interview since falling ill last year, but he gave no hint of a possible return to power.
The Cuban leader spoke with passion about various subjects for almost 50 minutes in an interview broadcast on state television on Tuesday, granting the world its first proper look at the communist icon since he disappeared from public view 10 months ago.
Wearing black trainers and an Adidas tracksuit in the Cuban national colours, his convalescence trademark, Castro was far more robust than the spectral figure glimpsed in previous brief clips.
He appeared to enjoy being back in the limelight but there was no disguising his frailty and a sense that he remains detached from day-to-day government. The 80-year-old devoted much of the interview to Vietnamese development statistics and other arcane topics. He engaged only briefly with international issues and did not say if or when he would resume ruling Cuba.
He said he was focused on recuperating. ”I tell my compatriots, I’m now doing what I should be doing. There are no secrets.” He praised his improved diet but warned he was not fully recovered. ”There are dangers that threaten the health of a human being. I don’t want to disappoint.”
The interview was recorded on Monday at an undisclosed location. The furniture appeared similar to previous footage, suggesting he may be at the same hospital that has treated him for months.
Randy Alonso, the host of the government’s nightly Round Table programme, asked gentle, open-ended questions that the veteran leader answered at length, often straying into unrelated topics — a habit from the marathon speeches he used to give.
A meeting last weekend with the general secretary of Vietnam’s communist party, Nong Duc Manh, prompted Castro to reminisce about the humidity he experienced during a wartime visit to Vietnam. ”How hot it was. It was like you jumped in a pool with clothes on.”
Speaking slowly and distinctly, he consulted a notebook while reeling off statistics about Vietnam’s rice and coffee harvests and praising its modern toilets. Later he talked about coffee production, solar energy and food security.
He made just one fleeting reference to United States President George Bush in the context of a summit on energy and global warming.
Some analysts said Castro’s focus on the past rather than the future was part of the government’s strategy to signal that the succession had happened and that ”el maximo comandante” was now to be viewed as an elder statesman and a talisman, but not a chief executive.
After almost half a century dominating his Caribbean island, and being a thorn in Washington’s side, Castro ceded power to his brother Raul last July to be treated for what is thought to be diverticulitis, a weakening of the intestine.
He has not appeared in public since, but has made a choreagraphed return to visibility: he sipped orange juice in a brief video in January, phoned his Venezuelan ally Hugo Chávez in a radio programme in February. He strolled with the novelist Gabriel GarcÃÂa Márquez in a photo published in March and meet a Chinese delegation in a brief April video.
Castro has also recently started penning articles that have criticised biofuels, British nuclear submarines and Bush. Analysts have been left guessing at how much influence Castro now wields over Raul.
Four years younger than his more famous brother, the acting president has kept the country calm during Fidel’s absence and has hinted at economic reforms to alleviate grinding poverty. – Guardian Unlimited Â