CUBA: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro congratulates Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on election victory.

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, last seen in an Oct. 28 video clip, congratulated ally Hugo Chavez on his re-election as Venezuelan president, according to a message published on Tuesday (December 5). "Your victory was conclusive, crushing and without parallel in the history of our Americas," said the brief note signed by Castro and published by ruling Communist newspaper Granma. "We Cubans are happy," he said. Castro failed to show up last week for delayed celebrations of his 80th birthday and a military parade marking the start of his revolution 50 years ago. His absence has fueled speculation that he is very ill or close to death. Castro has not appeared in public since he underwent emergency surgery to stop intestinal bleeding in late July. He was forced to hand over power to his brother Raul Castro. Cubans were shocked by video images released on Oct. 28 that showed a frail and shuffling Castro suffering from an undisclosed illness. Venezuela has helped keep the Cuban economy afloat by providing oil shipments with preferential financing which Cuba pays for with billions of dollars in medical services. With Fidel now out of sight for over a month, some citizens on Tuesday said they would like to hear more from their leader. "He said in a very concise way but I would have liked to have had more information. Fidel always has a lot of arguments, a lot to say but he decided to do it that way (brief)," said Lazaro Rodriguez. Others were simply happy to hear a message from Castro. "It was beautiful, the message was very profound which is something that we have come to expect from our Commander," said one resident. "We need to see him again but we are absolutely certain that the Revolution is working fine and everything is calm," said another.

ITN Source | December 6, 2006

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