Fit Fidel Castro’s pictures released

An official Cuban newspaper on Sunday published a photo of 83-year-old former president Fidel Castro apparently in good health and  meeting visiting Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa.

The photo of Castro, on the front page of the Juventud Rebelde newspaper, showed a fit-looking Castro standing and wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt in his meeting with Correa, who began a private visit to Cuba a few days ago.

Castro, the leader of Cuba’s 1959 revolution that brought Communism to the Caribbean island, has remained out of public view for the last three years and in 2008 handed over the presidency to younger brother Raul Castro for health reasons.

Various photos of Fidel Castro meeting heads of state and other visitors have been released outside Cuba and on the internet in recent months. But access to the internet is severely restricted in Cuba.

The Juventud Rebelde photo of the former leader was the first published inside the country since Feb 17, when Fidel Castro met Chilean president Michelle Bachelet.