OMEN
08-12-2006, 09:04 PM
CUBA'S ailing President Fidel Castro is recovering from last month's intestinal surgery and is walking, the official Communist Party newspaper Granma has reported, citing an unidentified "friend".
The glowing report on Castro's health came a day before the revolutionary leader turns 80. Castro transferred the power of the presidency to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, on July 31 while he recuperates, and neither brother has been seen in public since.
"He's as strong as the caguairan," the Granma headline read, referring to a particularly sturdy tropical hardwood tree that grows in Cuba.
"A friend recounts, just hours after visiting El Comandante (The Commander), ... some good news that can be summed up enthusiastically in a single phrase: 'The caguairan has stood up,'" Granma proclaimed in a special supplement on Castro as the country prepared to celebrate his 80th birthday.
The unidentified friend said "he could see how the chief of the revolution, after receiving some physical therapy, took a few steps in his room and then, sitting in an armchair, conversed animatedly," the newspaper reported.
"Like the tree emblematic of Cuba, he is upright, strong (and) tough, ideal for building lasting works. Our friend saw El Comandante walking about, like someone looking forward to new victories, and with a firm bearing like the caguairan," Granma wrote.
The newspaper theme embellished on the Cuban Communist Party's statement last Monday, which quoted a "friend" who had seen Castro and was impressed with his recovery as saying: "He is a caguairan!''
The party explained that the tree "is incorruptible, compact (and) of an extraordinary durability."
The caguairan is one of the sturdiest trees that grows on the Caribbean island, where it is also known as quiebra hacha, or "the axe-breaker".
In Castro's last statement to Cubans, read on state television on August 1, the leader said he was in "stable" condition and "good spirits" after surgery but that his health was a "state secret".
Cubans were anxiously awaiting a message from Castro himself on his birthday, after a string of second-hand reports since August 1 by friends, officials and the Cuban media.
Agence France-Presse
The glowing report on Castro's health came a day before the revolutionary leader turns 80. Castro transferred the power of the presidency to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, on July 31 while he recuperates, and neither brother has been seen in public since.
"He's as strong as the caguairan," the Granma headline read, referring to a particularly sturdy tropical hardwood tree that grows in Cuba.
"A friend recounts, just hours after visiting El Comandante (The Commander), ... some good news that can be summed up enthusiastically in a single phrase: 'The caguairan has stood up,'" Granma proclaimed in a special supplement on Castro as the country prepared to celebrate his 80th birthday.
The unidentified friend said "he could see how the chief of the revolution, after receiving some physical therapy, took a few steps in his room and then, sitting in an armchair, conversed animatedly," the newspaper reported.
"Like the tree emblematic of Cuba, he is upright, strong (and) tough, ideal for building lasting works. Our friend saw El Comandante walking about, like someone looking forward to new victories, and with a firm bearing like the caguairan," Granma wrote.
The newspaper theme embellished on the Cuban Communist Party's statement last Monday, which quoted a "friend" who had seen Castro and was impressed with his recovery as saying: "He is a caguairan!''
The party explained that the tree "is incorruptible, compact (and) of an extraordinary durability."
The caguairan is one of the sturdiest trees that grows on the Caribbean island, where it is also known as quiebra hacha, or "the axe-breaker".
In Castro's last statement to Cubans, read on state television on August 1, the leader said he was in "stable" condition and "good spirits" after surgery but that his health was a "state secret".
Cubans were anxiously awaiting a message from Castro himself on his birthday, after a string of second-hand reports since August 1 by friends, officials and the Cuban media.
Agence France-Presse