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HAVANA - Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared in his first television interview in more than three months today, ending speculation that the ailing revolutionary had died or suffered a major relapse.
Castro, 81, spoke slowly about world affairs, the Cold War and the global economy, but appeared little changed from the last time he was shown in a state television interview on June 5.
"Here I am," Castro said, rebuffing those who have speculated that he was at death's door, already dead or about to die. "Nobody knows when he is going to die."
Dressed in what has become a customary red, blue and white athletic jacket, sitting in an armchair and showing his age through the gray in his beard and bags under his eyes, Castro answered questions about an essay he published this week and attacked the United States, his longtime ideological foe.
"Yesterday the euro was at $US1.41. Oil I think about $84 a barrel," Castro said at one point, indicating that he was up to date on current affairs and signalling that the interview was very recent.
He also showed a copy of a book by former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence, which was published this week, and read excerpts in Spanish from the dust jacket.
Castro, who took power on the Caribbean island in a 1959 revolution, handed over control to his younger brother, Raul Castro, on July 31, 2006 after emergency intestinal surgery. He has not appeared in public since then.
Instead, he has been seen in occasional photographs and videos with visiting foreign leaders and has produced a steady of columns and essays printed by state media over the past six months.
Rumours
His failure to appear on his birthday on August 13 fuelled rampant rumours in Miami - the heartland of exiled opposition to his near five-decade-long rule - that he had had a major health setback, was on his deathbed or was already dead.
Beaming television presenter Randy Alonso said the nearly hour-long taped interview that aired on Friday evening took place earlier in the day.
Castro's interview amazed Cubans, 70 per cent of whom have known no other leader.
"People were saying that Fidel was dying, and there he is looking well," said Orlando Herrera, who watched the interview at the Havana train station. "Now the United States knows he is better."
"Fidel looks thin, but he is speaking fluently. That's a sign he is recovering well. He is strong. He held up a very heavy book," said state employee Heriberto Rodriguez.
In Miami, Cuban exile Ramon Saul Sanchez said Castro was politically dead even though he was still alive, and change was inevitable in the Communist-ruled country.
"I think he's looking better than the last time he appeared on TV, but he is still a very sick person, a very old person. And even though his health is probably stable at this point, I think his political career is over," Sanchez said.
"We are talking about a man who destroyed a nation, divided families and has ruled for nearly half a century," he said.
Castro's closest ally, leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said earlier on Friday that his political mentor had undergone several blood transfusions and had almost died.
He did not make clear if he was talking about a recent relapse or if he was recounting complications that Castro suffered after undergoing surgery more than a year ago.
"Fidel is well, clearly he has not finished his recovery. He has a little problem there but he can live like this another 100 years," Chavez told reporters on a visit to Brazil.
Senior Cuban officials said on Thursday that the Cuban leader continues to recover from his health crisis, but they gave no indication he would return to office.
"Fidel is recovering," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told reporters. "It has been a fertile period of work, reading, studying and writing, while keeping in touch with and being involved in the country's main decisions, on which he is consulted."
- REUTERS
