Castro battling for his life, says Chavez

RIO DE JANEIRO, Saturday (AFP) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is fighting for his life, his friend and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said. “He's back in Sierra Maestra and locked in a battle for his life,” said Chavez, referring to Castro's legendary guerrilla war that toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and ushered in his Cuban Revolution. “There are those who want Fidel to die,” Chavez said alluding to a recent Spanish press report that Castro, 80, was gravely ill following three failed operations.

“But I spoke to him a few days ago ... We trust he will recover completely,” Chavez told the Rio de Janeiro state legislature.
Chavez has visited Castro and often speaks to him by telephone. There has been mounting speculation over the condition of Castro, who has not been seen in public since being taken ill in late July.

Last week, a US intelligence chief said Castro was terminally ill and might have only days to live. “I don't know when he's going to die,” said Chavez. “I hope he lives another 80 years, I hope he lives another 100 years, but Fidel Castro is one of those men who will never die.””He's like Che Guevara, the immortal Che,” the leftist president said to the applause of some 500 people, in reference to the legendary guerrilla leader and Castro's right-hand who was killed in Bolivia in 1967.

After intestinal surgery, Castro transferred power temporarily to his 75-year-old brother Raul, who is defense minister, and the Cuban government since then has made his health a state secret. Chavez was in Rio de Janeiro to attend a two-day summit of the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Venezuela is a member along with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Meanwhile, the Spanish doctor who examined Castro last month said his health was improving and again dismissed as alarmist reports in the media. Spanish newspaper El Pais had reported on Wednesday what it said were fresh details about Castro's condition, saying the treatment he had been given had triggered serious complications.

“According to my information, there is even some progressive improvement in Castro's health,” doctor Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido told CCN television. “The only truthful parts of the newspaper's reports are the name of the patient, that he has been operated on and that he has had complications. The rest is rumours.”According to El Pais: “Castro suffered intestinal hemorrhaging last summer and a severe infection caused by inflammation of the large intestine,” a condition called diverticulitis.

On Tuesday, El Pais quoted sources at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon hospital as saying that Castro was gravely ill following an intestinal infection and three failed operations. That report was also dismissed by Garcia Sabrido. Garcia Sabrido examined Castro in Havana last month. After returning to Spain he said the Cuban leader did not have cancer, as had been rumoured, and was making a steady recovery. He declined to be more specific, citing medical confidentiality.