Argentine President says: Fidel Castro 'believes in Obama'

[giovonni]

Argentine prez: Fidel Castro 'believes in Obama'


Jan 21, 5:53 PM (ET)

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro watched the U.S. inauguration on television and said Wednesday that Barack Obama seems "like a man who is absolutely sincere," Argentina's president said after meeting with the ailing Cuban icon. "Fidel believes in Obama," Cristina Fernandez said.

The meeting with Fernandez, just before she ended a four-day visit to Cuba, dispelled persistent rumors that the 82-year-old Castro had suffered a stroke or lapsed into a coma in recent days.

"I was with Fidel about an hour or more," she told reporters at the airport as she left. "We were chatting, conversing. He looked good."

Fernandez said Castro wore the track suit that has become his trademark since he fell ill in July 2006 and vanished from public view. A spokesman said the two met alone.

"He told me he had followed the inauguration of Barack Obama very closely, that he had watched the inauguration on television all day," Fernandez said. "He had a very good perception of President Obama."

Fernandez said Castro called Obama "a man who seems absolutely sincere," who believes strongly in his ideas "and who hopefully can carry them out."

Raul Castro, who took over the presidency from his brother, appeared with Fernandez, scoffing at the rumors about his brother's health.

"Do you think if he were really gravely ill that I'd be smiling here?" Raul Castro said. "Soon I'm going to take a trip to Europe. You guys think I could leave here if Fidel were really in grave condition?"

Castro, 77, said his older brother spends his days "thinking a lot, reading a lot, advising me, helping me."

The rumors about Castro's health were fanned by the fact that he hasn't written a newspaper column in more than a month and hadn't held a confirmed meeting with a foreign leader since Nov. 28. The presidents of Panama and Ecuador visited this month but left without saying they had seen the elder Castro.

"Now you know that Fidel is fine, and not like the rumors around here," Raul Castro said.

Earlier Wednesday, Raul Castro said Obama "seemed like a good man" and wished him luck.

Obama has pledged to ease limits on Cuban-Americans' visits to the island and on how much money they can send home to relatives. He has also offered to negotiate personally with Raul Castro, though he has said he won't push Congress to lift the U.S. trade embargo, at least not right away.

Cubans see those as important steps in improving U.S.-Cuba relations. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, tightened sanctions on the communist-governed country.

The comments by the Castro brothers contrast with those of their ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government took exception to Obama's characterization of Chavez as "a destructive force in the region." Obama made the comments in an interview with the Univision television network.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said he hoped Obama would "rectify" the comments, which he said showed his "total ignorance" about Latin America.

"President Chavez has won 12 of the 14 elections in the past 10 years," the state-run Bolivarian News Agency quoted Maduro as saying. "He is the legitimate president."


Associated Press writer Mayra Pertossi contributed to this report from Buenos Aires.

original story;http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090121/D95RQGSO0.html

[Carmen]

I have many inspiring reports of how the Cubans tackled the problems in their country. They appear to be world leaders in growing vegetables and fruits in a sustainable, organic way. There was a wonderful photo in one of our New Zealand magazines, of large scale raised bed garden right next to a large city. Their doctors and their medical system seems to be very proficient also. My son-in-law reports that in South Africa, many of the doctors are Cuban. If any of the members of this forum have watched Michael Moores "Sicko" they would have observed the medical system of Cuba, which I have to say is light years ahead of the USA. In fact any system of any country, except third world countries, has to be better than the USA by all accounts.

[Dantheman62]

Carmen, are you talking about our medical system or our medical equipment and technology?

[giovonni]

Yes , people can say what they want about Fidel, but the Cuban people in the homeland> are creative innovative, resourceful and educated! They have had to be. They have suffered a long senseless embargo with cultural isolation. We can hope, and maybe even expect Obama> will end all this? It is time for Cuban Americans, to be allowed to be reunited too their ancesteral homeland.

[Carmen]

The system Gio, from this far away, and from what travellers to your country have experienced, the American system seems to depend on how much money a person has, not their need for medical assistance. I am sure the standard of doctors and medical equipment is second to none. Unfortunately, a profit based system is not administered fairly across the board. The haves and the have nots are clearly identified.

We seem to have adopted to a lessor degree the American system to a degree. Seems to be top heavy and the nurses, that actually do the work, are the poorer for it. But in saying all that I think all systems around the world, are groaning with the weight of sick people and more and more cost envolved in dealing with the problem.

[Humble Janitor]

I am strongly in support of US-Cuba reconcilation and it has to be done soon. The policy of restricting Cuba and messing with their affairs using Cuban-American politicians has to come to an end.

Too many families have suffered as a result of this embargo. It is wrong-headed and does the exact opposite of what many Cuban-Americans (such as the Diaz-Balarts and Mel Martinez in Florida) have hoped to accomplish by opposing Castro and using the politics of power over the politics of love.