Extremely happy Castro is well, says Marado

Hava, Jan 13: Retired football legend Diego Marado has said Monday he was extremely happy to know that Fidel Castro was well after receiving a letter, dated Jan 11, from the former Cuban leader.

Marado spoke to the Telesur channel Monday at the Hava airport from where he was to fly to Amsterdam and then to Dubai, where he has been appointed the ambassador of sports.

Marado received the letter Monday in which Castro spoke about topics like oil production and export by countries like Saudi Arabia, the US, Russia and Chi, Marado told Telesur and the Cuban media.

Images of the letter shown by Marado to the reporters reveal that Castro wrote that he had still not been able to greet the three Cuban intelligence agents who were freed from a US prison and returned to the country as a part of the normalisation of relations between the two tions.

“Do you know that I have still not been able to greet them? Though I did send flowers to little Gema. What a beautiful me!” Castro wrote, referring to the daughter of Gerardo Herndez — one of the agents — born Jan 6 with the help of artificial insemition.

He ended his letter with the words, “A big hug, maestro,” followed by his sigture and the date and time (Jan 11, 2015; 7.25 p.m.) of his writing the letter.

Telesur, on its website and Twitter page, posted photos of Marado holding the letter which served to refute rumours of Castro’s death.

The past week has seen a flurry of speculations about the health of the 88–year–old Castro, who was last seen in public a year ago.

Since recovering from the illness that forced him to hand over power to younger brother Raul Castro in 2006, Fidel has published written commentaries, known as “Reflections”, in Cuba’s official media. His last piece appeared on Oct 18. IANS