Fidel: more like a brother than a friend

FIDEL Castro is laughing, making jokes, receiving gifts, feeling the joy of friendship and spending more than three hours with his brother in ideas, as highlighted by the major international press, television and radio media, which are still publishing features related to Fidel’s 80th birthday and his recovery, emphasizing the footage presented on the TV "Roundtable" program on Monday (August 14), in which the Cuban leader is shown with Hugo Chávez Frías, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

A Prensa Latina dispatch Tuesday reported that in Hanoi the press main pages reflected the message sent to the leader of the Revolution by Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam; President Nguyen Minh Triet; and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in which they congratulated him on his 80th birthday and wished him a "prompt recovery so that you can return to the helm of the country."

In addition they informed that Cuban Finance Minister Georgina Barreiro arrived in that nation this Tuesday for a two-day working visit and that, before the fist session began, Vietnamese officials asked after the health of Fidel, whom they affirmed is more like a brother than a friend.

In their message, Manh, Triet, and Dung declared that Vietnam fully appreciates the exceptional merits of the Comandante in his battle to "promote the revolutionary cause of the sister people of Cuba in the materialization of the legacy and aspirations of the great thinker José Martí."

La Jornada and El Universal of Mexico; El Universal of Venezuela; CNN; ABC; and La Nación of Chile have also dedicated a good part of their space to Fidel.

In Germany pages of the dailies Süddeutsche Zeitung, Hamburguer Adendblatt, Frankfuter Allgemeine Zeitung, Berliner Zeitung, Reuters Germany, Neues Deutschland, Junge Welt, Unsere Zeit, the magazines Spiegel Online, Focus, the news stations N-TV, ARD, N24, Bayerischer Rundfunk, ZDF, ARTE, and others included headlines such as: "Made of the strongest wood," "President Fidel expressed gratitude to his people and to the Cuban Five on his 80th birthday," "Congratulations Fidel," "All of Cuba celebrates Fidel Castro’s birthday," "Don’t get your hopes up; "We are prepared for anything," "Fidel will be back soon and different."

Meanwhile, messages continue pouring into Granma, one of them from Río Grande do Sul in Brazil. Tiago Ricardo Conci, a university student wrote: "I know that there is no distance too great for the solidarity that I am expressing. My sincere wishes for Comandante Fidel’s recovery." In another part of the text he assures the leader of the Revolution that if Bush tries to attack the island, "he will find in me someone prepared to fight together with the Cuban people to the end to defend the nation that I have taken as mine as well." (SE)