Castro is doing well, to be back in weeks

HAVANA: Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, described by sources as well enough to be eating and sitting up, could return to power in several weeks, Cuba’s vice president said on Saturday.

Vice President Carlos Lage denied a newspaper report that the 79-year-old former guerrilla fighter who had surgery for internal bleeding and temporarily turned over power to brother Raul on Monday, is suffering from stomach cancer and has an unfavourable prognosis.

“Fidel has had to confront an operation and is recovering favourably. He does not have cancer,” Lage told reporters during an official visit to Bolivia. He said the long-time Communist leader could reassume power from Raul “in several weeks.”

Lage’s comments were the latest assurances by Cuban officials and allies that Castro had not lost his grip on the communist government he has run since sweeping into power in a 1959 revolution. In Havana, where residents were stunned at Monday’s announcement that the ‘Comandante’ had provisionally given power to Raul Castro, 75, sources who had spoken to government officials said Fidel Castro was doing well for a man his age.