Castro singing, fit for baseball

Castro 'singing, fit for baseball'
POSTED: 4:36 a.m. EDT, September 15, 2006

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Fidel Castro was "walking, singing" and "almost well enough to play baseball," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared after meeting with the ailing leader Thursday in Cuba during a trip to Cuba for the Nonaligned Movement summit.

Castro's state of health was the major preoccupation ahead of the summit in Havana at which Iran and other opponents of U.S. policy are meeting to discuss joint initiatives.

Cuba takes over the three-year chairmanship of the Nonaligned movement from Malaysia this week. Chavez said with his close friend in charge, the group representing two-thirds of the world's nations will be much stronger.

The talks move from foreign minister level Friday and Saturday to heads of state and government.

The Nonaligned summit is the first international meeting where the Cuban leader's younger brother, Raul Castro, has represented his country.

Trading the customary green fatigues he wears as Cuba's defense minister for a dark suit, Raul Castro praised Iran and other developing nations for their efforts to create "a better, more just world" after settling into his place at the head of the table at the Group of 15 developing nations meeting on the sidelines of the summit.

Chavez also joined the group, grinning widely after announcing on his way in that he would push to move the United Nations headquarters out of the United States, possibly to Syria, the Brazilian capital, or any other city without an "empire that applies such irresponsible measures" as denying visas to visiting delegations.

Chavez claims the United States has denied visas for members of his security detail and his Cuban doctor to travel to New York for next week's U.N. General Assembly meeting. A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Caracas, however, said the visas were requested too late and are still being processed.

"Our countries have no alternative but to unite and take concerted action to overcome our common obstacles," Raul Castro said, praising the leaders for "their efforts to achieve a more fluid and positive dialogue" between nations in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Castro made an appearance of sorts on the summit's sidelines when state television showed photos of him chatting with an old friend, Argentine congressman Miguel Bonasso, in Castro's home in Havana. Bonasso described Castro as much improved in a first-person article about their encounter in the Pagina/12 newspaper Thursday.

"It may sound incredible, but Fidel was as lucid and penetrating as ever," Bonasso wrote.

Chavez has already met with Castro three times since the 80-year-old Cuban leader announced on July 31 that he had undergone intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his 75-year-old brother.

Bolivian President Evo Morales also arrived early Thursday, joining an array of U.S. critics whose appearances in Cuba were expected to shape a contentious debate at next week's U.N. General Assembly session over Iran's nuclear ambitions and Venezuela's efforts to join the Security Council.

The summit also has provided a fresh look at the collective leadership that has emerged during Fidel Castro's recovery. Raul has taken on his brother's protocol role, meeting with the leaders of Malaysia, Algeria, Vietnam, while several other top Cuban officials have given forceful speeches.

The Group of 15 was initially set up to foster cooperation with international groups such as the World Trade Organization, the G-15 has since grown to include 18 members: Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

One country that won't take part is the United States, which declined an invitation to attend as an observer.

Still, the policies of President Bush have come up repeatedly. Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon accused the U.S. of breaking its own pledge to fight terrorism by harboring Luis Posada Carriles, former CIA operative and militant Castro foe wanted in Venezuela for the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

"George W. Bush has said it, the White House said it: 'States that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists," Alarcon said. "Then I ask, why does a federal judge decide that Posada Carriles can be set free?"

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage also singled out the United States as he exhorted the movement to use peace and cooperation to achieve its goals.

"Amid wars and threats of more wars, the world in which we live is each day more unjust and unequal," Lage said. "The end of the East-West confrontation was not the beginning of the peace that many of us dreamed of. ... The real history has been that of a growing dominance of a nation that is unscrupulously exercising economic and political pressures."

The Nonaligned Movement developed during the Cold War as an alternative in a world divided by the United States and Soviet Union, and grows to 118 members this week with the addition of the Caribbean states of Haiti and St. Kitts.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will attend as an observer, and also was expected to meet personally with Fidel Castro before returning to New York for the U.N. assembly.

Others attending include Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, as well as Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh of India and Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. North Korea said it is sending its No. 2, parliament leader Kim Yong Nam.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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