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Fidel Castro Appears Animated and Alert in New Photos | |
(about 9 hours later) | |
MEXICO CITY — Photographs of Fidel Castro taken 10 days ago appeared on an official website late Monday, the first to be published since rumors about Mr. Castro’s death swirled through Havana and Miami in December. | |
The series of photographs posted by Granma, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, show Mr. Castro, 88, during a visit to his home on Jan. 23 by Randy Perdomo García, the head of the student federation at the University of Havana. | |
Mr. Castro was conspicuously absent from public view after his brother, President Raúl Castro, and President Obama announced an agreement Dec. 17 to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. But he broke his silence Jan. 26 in a letter, also published in Granma, giving a qualified endorsement of the détente. The state news media carried a series of reports that appeared intended to quash speculation about the retired leader’s health. | |
In the newly published photographs, Mr. Castro appears alert and animated, wearing a blue checked shirt and a Fila tracksuit and sitting in an armchair. Mr. Perdomo is seen with him, pointing to a newspaper with coverage of imprisoned Cuban spies who were freed by the United States under the agreement. Mr. Perdomo also shows Mr. Castro a commemorative University of Havana plate. In several of the photographs, Mr. Castro’s wife, Dalia Soto del Valle, stands smiling behind his armchair. | |
Mr. Perdomo described the three-hour visit in a long, rather breathless account that accompanied the photographs on the Granma site. He wrote that Mr. Castro became “happiest and most enthusiastic” when watching a video of American students visiting the University of Havana in December under a study-abroad program. | |
According to the account, the two men discussed university life, the former leader’s diet and daily exercises, and international affairs. |
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