Images shows Castro stronger after surgery

FIDEL Castro looked stronger yesterday in the first images the government has released of him in months, showing him in a brief videotape and four photographs meeting with the visiting Vietnamese Communist party chief.

In the video clip shown on state television, and four photographs of his two-hour meeting with Nong Duc Manh published yesterday in the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde, Castro appeared to be wearing the same red track suit with black and white trim he wore in some of the past images released by the government.

In one photograph, the two are seen sitting on rattan chairs and chatting, and in the other three they are standing, including one that shows them embracing.

The 80-year-old Castro has not been seen in public since he announced on July 31 that he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his 76-year-old brother Raul, the defence minister.

Castro’s exact ailment remains a state secret, but he is largely believed to suffer from diverticular disease, which forms sacs in the colon that can become inflamed and bleed.

In one of a series of essays he has been writing during his convalescence, Castro said he had undergone numerous operations and the first one had not gone well, explaining why his recovery has been delayed.