Amid a flurry of reports of Castro being near death, Chavez insists the Cuban leader’s health was slowly progressing.

Chavez: Castro ‘fighting for his life,’ progressing slowly

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) – Cuban leader Fidel Castro is “fighting for his life,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

Chavez, who said he spoke to Castro a few days ago by telephone, compared Castro’s battle against a serious intestinal illness with the Cuban leader’s time in the island’s mountains heading the revolution against the Fulgencio Batista government.

“Fidel is again in the Sierra Maestra again,” Chavez said Friday in a speech to the state legislature in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“He’s fighting for his life. We don’t know; we want him to recover, and he continues progressing, although slowly.”

Noting Castro’s age, Chavez said that “he said it himself: the machine that they have to fix is 80 years old.”

Castro has not been seen in public since before July 31, when he relinquished power to his brother Raul so that he could undergo intestinal surgery. The Cuban government has maintained secrecy about his condition.

Source: CNN.com

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