Animated Castro hob nobs with writers at Havana book fair
AFP
HAVANA- An animated Fidel Castro met for more than nine hours with writers and intellectuals at Havana's International Book Fair, in a return to form for the ailing Cuban leader, the local media reported Saturday.
Some of the writers and scholars at Friday's event congratulated Castro for his "obvious recovery" from his illness of recent years, the communist party daily Granma reported.
It was Castro's first public appearance since April 2011, when he attended the Communist Party Congress where his brother, Raul Castro, was appointed to replace him as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Retired from power since July 2006, the 85-year-old Castro spent part of his nine hours at the book fair discussing environmental issues, saying the risk of human extinction was "more serious today than two decades ago."
"We have to fight, we cannot allow ourselves to be overcome by pessimism. It is out duty," he said.
The meeting was arranged by the non-governmental organization In Defense of Humanity.
The official website Cubadebate released 42 photos from the event, some of which showed Castro animated and smiling as he held up copies of his memoirs.
Other photos showed attendees like 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Brazilian theologian Frei Betto.
Last week, Castro announced the publication of his memoirs, entitled "Fidel Castro: Guerrilla of Time," which recounts stories from his childhood and explains how he became a revolutionary. The two-volume memoirs are told through conversations with Cuban journalist Katiuska Blanco.
In 2010, he published two books, "The Strategic Victory" and "The Strategic Counteroffensive," in which he narrated his experiences as a guerrilla fighting the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista from 1952 through 1958.
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Retired from power since July 2006, the 85-year-old Castro spent part of his nine hours at the book fair discussing environmental issues, saying the risk of human extinction was "more serious today than two decades ago."
"We have to fight, we cannot allow ourselves to be overcome by pessimism. It is out duty," he said.
The meeting was arranged by the non-governmental organization In Defense of Humanity.
The official website Cubadebate released 42 photos from the event, some of which showed Castro animated and smiling as he held up copies of his memoirs.
Other photos showed attendees like 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Brazilian theologian Frei Betto.
Last week, Castro announced the publication of his memoirs, entitled "Fidel Castro: Guerrilla of Time," which recounts stories from his childhood and explains how he became a revolutionary. The two-volume memoirs are told through conversations with Cuban journalist Katiuska Blanco.
In 2010, he published two books, "The Strategic Victory" and "The Strategic Counteroffensive," in which he narrated his experiences as a guerrilla fighting the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista from 1952 through 1958.
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