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Castro speaks live on TV
15/10/2007 14:04 - (SA)
Santa Clara, Cuba - Cubans heard their ailing President Fidel Castro joking and chattering as he spoke live for the first time in months on a television show hosted by his Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez.
In his first live broadcast in Cuba since he was sidelined by an unspecified illness 15 months ago, Castro spoke by telephone for an hour and 22 minutes on a variety of topics, including the state of his health and the challenges of life in the shadow of the United States.
"Everyone is electrified to hear you," Chavez told the convalescing Cuban leader on his programme Hello Mr President, broadcast for five hours on Sunday in both Cuba and Venezuela.
Castro has kept out of sight since undergoing intestinal surgery and ceding power to his brother Raul in July 2006, communicating through regular articles in the communist regime's official newspapers.
He took part in an earlier broadcast of Chavez's programme by phone in February, but that aired live only in Venezuela.
This time, however, he went to great lengths to persuade fellow Cubans and other viewers his appearance was genuine.
"I can see you are moving your left hand, and I know you are left-handed. And now I can see you laughing," Castro said to Chavez, to persuade sceptics that the broadcast was indeed live.
Closer ties
Apparently to the same end, the two discussed the most recent oil prices and joked about their joint foe, US President George W Bush.
"This gentleman crosses to the other side of the street when he sees me," Castro said of Bush.
"He is too powerful to speak with the devil, with an axis of evil. And you, Hugo, and I represent an axis of evil," he added, using a term Bush once applied to certain rogue states.
"Don't even think of mentioning to anybody, not even as a joke, that I speak to Lucifer," the Cuban leader concluded.
Switching to a more serious tone, he argued with satisfaction that "the tyrannical power" - a term he usually reserves for the United States - "is now facing new multiple Vietnams."
The Venezuelan president underscored ever closer ties between his country and Cuba, saying: "Deep down, we are one government."
Chavez later proposed building a petrochemical plant in the southern central Cuban city of Cienfuegos, where he travelled after the show. He said he would discuss it with Raul Castro at a meeting on Monday.
Venezuela is a key trading partner and oil supplier to Cuba, which has been under a tight embargo by the United States for more than 40 years. A $1.4bn oil refinery renovated with its help is to open in Cienfuegos in December.
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