SPAIN / CUBA: Spanish doctor who treated Cuban leader Fidel Castro says his health is excellent

A Spanish doctor who has just examined Fidel Castro said on Tuesday, (December 26) that the Cuban leader was recovering and did not have cancer. Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido told a news conference in Madrid after returning from Cuba that Castro was in excellent health and had a fantastic intellect. "The discussions with the (Castro's) medical team did not reveal a need for any surgical intervention because the condition of the President, I can assure you, is excellent. He has a great intellectual activity and that is one of the main problems for the medical team as they need to limit his activities. He has his intellectual activity intact, I would say fantastic and he is going through a recuperation process from a series of medical problems from a grave previous surgery," said Dr. Garcia. "He wants to return to work every day, but doctors advise him to be cautious." Dr. Garcia added that Castro's problem was not life threatening. "Within the limits of confidentiality, I can tell you that President Castro does not have any malignant illness. It is a benign process in which there have been some complications," said Dr. Garcia. Asked by Reuters Television about the chances for Castro's prompt return to power, Garcia said: "I don't know, I don't know." The 80-year-old Castro's disappearance from the public eye after emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding in July sparked frenzied speculation about his state of health. U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte told the Washington Post on December 15 that Castro was likely to die within months. Castro's brother Raul, the defence minister aged 75, took over the government temporarily on July 31 when the emergency surgery forced Fidel to relinquish power for the first time since Cuba's 1959 revolution. Cuban officials say Fidel Castro is not dying and will return to public life. But he has missed recent public appearances, including his 80th birthday celebration and appeared to be frail and walking with difficulty in video images released in October, fanning speculation that he is too ill to govern. The Cuban National Assembly held its year-end session last Friday without Castro in another sign that his nearly half a century as Cuba's hands-on leader may be over. U.S. congressman William Delahunt, one of the leaders of a delegation that visited Cuba recently, said he had concluded from discussions with officials there that if Castro did resume a political role, it would probably be setting broad policy, not governing on a day-to-day basis.

ITN Source | December 26, 2006

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