The United States sees no sign that convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro may return to power, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON: The United States sees no sign that convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro may return to power, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
Asked about remarks by Cuban officials that Castro, 80, who is recovering from intestinal surgery in July, was well on the mend, spokesman Sean McCormack said: "I haven't seen any evidence of that".
Fidel Castro handed power temporarily to his brother and regime number two Raul Castro, 75, on July 31.
"There would appear to be some form of transition under way in Cuba. We would hope that that transition is not just from one dictator to another and that the people have the opportunity at some point in the near future to choose those people who will govern them, which they don't have now," McCormack added.
In Havana, a top cabinet member said Tuesday that Fidel Castro could resume a more active role in government work "soon." "What we are expecting is that we will have him back with us, in a more active way, soon," Communist Party Politburo member and Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told reporters.
"Our comandante is recovering, his recovery process is making progress," Garcia said.
"I would say that he is already in the leadership that agrees on the main issues, and the country's most important decisions. And he also is very involved in all these areas: oil and energy, on which he always has been in the lead. We have been receiving his direction, the instructions he gives, and the outlook is very good, very favorable," added Garcia, in an unusual level of detail on Castro's health, which Cuba regards as a state secret.
Speculation on Castro's health has at times appeared wild over the past months with US officials at one stage suggesting that Washington's longtime nemesis had just days left to live.
Much to the chagrin of hardline Cuban exiles in Miami, who had prematurely danced on his grave, video footage of Castro broadcast on January 30 showed him looking healthier and more alert than in the previous pictures released by Cuban authorities.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close Castro ally, said Monday that Fidel Castro would make his first public appearance since last year on April 28, at a meeting in Havana of leaders from the alternative development group Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), backed by Cuba.
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