Headlines
Fidel Castro makes first public appearance in 14 months
Havana, April 5
Former Cuban president
Fidel Castro visited a school in Havana last Monday where he happened to
meet up with members of a Venezuelan "Solidarity with Cuba" delegation,
in what was his first public appearance in more than a year, official
media reported on Saturday
News about Castro's visit to Vilma
Espin School, an educational complex built under his auspices and
inaugurated by him in 2013, circulated on social networks and was
reported by some media outside of Cuba over the past few days, but was
not confirmed by the official local media until Saturday, when they
published photos of the occasion.
In the pictures Castro is seen
seated in a vehicle, wearing his usual tracksuit and cap, and waving
through a window at some of the Venezuelan members of a delegation that
traveled to Havana on the "Bolivar-Marti Solidarity Flight".
A
group of that delegation visited the educational centre in western
Havana as part of their activities when they had the "chance meeting"
that lasted an hour and a half with Fidel, who was passing "very close
to the new school" and decided to make a stop there, the daily Juventud
Rebelde said on Saturday.
"The commander, for his part, decided
to go to the school, and once there, spoke with the director of the
centre and with the organisers of the Venezuelan visit," the daily said.
The
Cuban leader "greeted the Venezuelans one by one without being in the
slightest hurry. And he kept asking them about what is really happening
in the country that gave us that tremendous friend called Hugo Chavez",
the article said.
The daily noted that Castro spoke about
subjects related to the Venezuelan National Assembly, the work being
done with young people and the country's agriculture, and "showed
special concern about the South American nation's current battle to have
its sovereignty respected".
"He spoke according to his nature,
which is intense, and gave the importance of time its just measure:
'It's important to work fast and pile up many signatures to send (US)
President (Barack) Obama so that Venezuela stops being categorised as a
threat to the security of the North American country. You have to hurry
because the harmony of the world is at stake,'" Castro said according to
the report.
Fidel Castro, 88, stepped down from power in 2006
because of an illness, and made his last public appearance in January
2014 when he attended the inauguration of an art studio of painter
Alexis "Kcho" Leyva in a Havana neighbourhood.
Last February the
leader of the Cuban revolution reappeared in some photos published in
the official press that scuttled rumours about the state of his health,
after which no more pictures of him were seen in more than five months.