Chavez meets ailing Castro

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met for more than four hours with Fidel Castro and state media today published two new official photos of the men together, but provided no new details about the ailing Cuban leader’s health.

Chavez arrived in Havana late on Friday for a weekend visit that will include today’s airing of his weekly radio and television programme from the central provincial capital of Santa Clara, where the Cuban government on Monday marked the 40th anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

Wearing the red, white and blue track suit that has become his typical dress during his convalescence, Castro looks pale and serious in one photograph published on the website of the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde as he stands and shakes Chavez’s hand.

But Castro looks more animated in a second photograph as the pair sit in bamboo chairs at an undisclosed location while he appears to read from a book with a picture of Guevara on the cover while Chavez looks on. In both, Castro’s already sparse grey beard seems to have thinned considerably.

The last official image of Castro was a photograph released late last month, showing him looking more robust than in some past pictures as he stood and greeted Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos during an official visit to Havana.

“The two revolutionary leaders discussed the history of our nations, the solid and growing bilateral relations, the situation in Latin America and the most grave problems faced by humanity,” state television said of Chavez’s meeting of more than four hours with Castro on Saturday afternoon.

Chavez, a close friend and political ally of the 81-year-old Castro, last met with the Cuban leader during a surprise visit to the capital in June.

The Venezuelan president has travelled to Cuba several times to visit Castro since he underwent emergency intestinal surgery in late July 2006 and ceded authority to his younger brother Raul, who continues to head the collective leadership governing the communist-run country.

Castro has not appeared in public in the 14 months since he fell ill and was not expected to make an appearance on Sunday’s show. Castro called in live in February to one of Chavez’s programmes broadcast from Venezuela and the pair chatted for more than a half hour.