Americas News
Fidel Castro recovering well, Cuban health minister says
By DPA
Aug 4, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Guatemala City/Havana - Cuban President Fidel Castro is recovering well from surgery to curb intestinal bleeding, Cuba's Health Minister said Friday in Guatemala.

'Fidel underwent surgery from which he is recovering satisfactorily,' Jose Ramon Balaguer told journalists.

On Monday Castro, set to turn 80 on August 13, temporarily transferred power to his brother Raul, for the first time since his revolutionary triumph in 1959. Fidel Castro had said in the statement that he would need several weeks to recover from surgery.

Balaguer indicated that the Cuban regime has received messages of support and best wishes for Fidel Castro's health 'from the most remote corners of the world.'

In Havana, the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference asked the faithful to pray for Castro's health and also to pray for for those temporarily standing in for him to be 'illuminated' in their tasks.

The declaration, which was made public on Friday, will be read in all churches in Cuba on Sunday. It states that Fidel Castro's health problems present 'an especially significant moment' for the Cuban people.

'The Catholic Church, as a part of that people, shares this worry and the pleas of all believers,' the text says. The bishops go on to express 'a deep desire for peace and fraternal cohabitation among all Cubans, which cannot be disturbed by any external or internal situation.'

The Cuban regime had established an officially atheistic state on an island, which has a predominantly catholic population, but restrictions on religious practise have been reduced over the last few years.

Fidel Castro visited the Vatican in 1996, and the late Pope John Paul II reciprocated by travelling to Cuba in 1998.