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Chavez
pays surprise visit to Cuba
AFP, June 12, 2007.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was in
Cuba Tuesday on a surprise visit to meet
with his staunch ally and mentor, convalescing
Cuban leader Fidel Castro, official media
announced.
Chavez was to meet with Fidel Castro, 80,
and his brother, interim leader Raul Castro,
76, the report said. Further details on
Chavez's agenda were not immediately announced.
It was Chavez's sixth visit to Cuba since
Fidel Castro took ill nearly one year ago.
Fidel Castro met on Thursday with leftist
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who went
home immediately after a lightning "working
visit."
As Morales was seen off at Jose Marti international
airport by Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage,
he told reporters he found Fidel Castro
"well on the road to recovery."
The Cuban leader has been recovering at
an undisclosed location since he underwent
intestinal surgery last July. He then handed
over power temporarily to his brother, defense
chief Raul Castro, on July 31.
Last weekend, Vietnam Communist Party chief
Nong Duc Manh also held an unannounced meeting
with Castro at the close of his three-day
visit to Cuba.
Castro, during Manh's visit, was seen in
his first TV interview since he took ill,
and appeared to be looking better, but made
no mention of any eventual return to power.
"All I can tell my fellow countrymen
is what I've already said, that I'm now
doing what I have to do, nothing else. There's
no secret. I can't put it more clearly,"
he said.
Last week, however, Chavez was quoted as
telling Fidel Castro, who has been pictured
in video and still images in a track suit,
"I think it is time for you to put
your uniform back on."
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