Posted on 08/06/2006 2:53:17 PM PDT by wagglebee
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez today said Cuban leader Fidel Castro was now able to leave his bed and hold conversations following stomach surgery that required him to temporarily hand over power to his brother.
"This morning I learned that he's doing well, that he's already standing up out of bed, he's talking - more than he should, because he talks a lot," said Mr Chavez during a conversation with Bolivian President Evo Morales broadcast on television.
"He has sent us regards."
Venezuelan government sources yesterday said Mr Chavez does not have a trip to Cuba on his agenda despite media rumours that he was planning to visit Castro, a close Chavez ally whose country has benefited from preferential sales of Venezuelan crude oil.
Castro was reported yesterday to be able to eat and sit up.
Mr Chavez cancelled a scheduled trip to Bolivia to visit the opening of Bolivia's constituent assembly, charged with rewriting the country's constitution.
The Cuban government last week announced that Castro, 79, had handed control of the government temporarily to his younger brother Raul.
Neither of the two leaders has made a public appearance since the announcement.
Castro has served as a political role model for both Mr Morales and Mr Chavez, who has become the most visible face of a group of increasingly influential leftist Latin American leaders.
Loosely taken from the movie, "Top Secret" :
[talking on the phone] What is the condition of El Lider Maximo?
[pause]
Very well, let me know if there is any change in his condition.
[hangs up the phone]
He's dead.
Castro died on his birthday, next week.
But did they give him leftist pap instead?
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