Castro 'recovering satisfactorily'

Cuban leader Fidel Castro is “recovering satisfactorily” following recent surgery for intestinal bleeding, Cuban health minister Jose Ramon Balaguer told Guatemalans today.

“We have received messages of support from the most far-flung places in the world,” Balaguer told Radio Sonora.

Castro “underwent a surgery from which he is recovering satisfactorily”. He did not elaborate on the 79-year-old president’s condition.

Neither Castro nor his younger brother Raul have appeared in public since the announcement on Monday night that Fidel was temporarily ceding power to Raul.

Officials sought to assure Cubans that the communist regime retained its hold on power.

Balaguer made his remarks during a visit to the Guatemalan city of San Cristobal Verapaz, 90 miles north of the capital, Guatemala City, where he helped inaugurate a hospital partially financed by Cuba.