Havana

”I’m always scared,” said Pedro as he deftly twisted large tobacco leaves to make fake famous name Havana cigars in a clandestine workshop.

Cubans expect a low-key 81st birthday bash on Monday for President Fidel Castro as he continues recovering from an operation a year ago, but a visit by friend Hugo Chávez could be on the cards. The Venezuelan president hinted as much a week ago when he said he would ”soon” visit his friend.

Three New York rescue workers injured in the September 11 attacks got the best treatment Cuba can offer in Michael Moore’s film critique of United States healthcare. The 9/11 responders spent 10 days on the 19th floor of Cuba’s flagship hospital with a view of the Caribbean sea, a sharp contrast to many Cuban hospitals.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Wednesday he was eating enough solid food to recover from several intestinal operations that had not been successful at first. In his most detailed account of his health crisis, Castro said he spent months being fed intravenously, but has recovered his weight to a stable 80kg.

Talk in Ernest Hemingway’s former Havana watering hole often turns to the old man and the daiquiri and, at times, to the 45-year-old embargo that officially prevents Untied States fans from tippling to his memory in the Cuba he loved. ”We’re not even supposed to be here,” says New Yorker Neil Kok (47) raising his glass.

State television showed Fidel Castro for the first time in three months on Tuesday and the ailing Cuban leader said he was still in the fight to recover from surgery that forced him to relinquish power last July. Castro (80) looked stronger than he had in a previous video, but still frail, in the images from a two-hour meeting on Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.