Fidel Castro makes surprise appearance in Cuba

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance in Havana to vote in parliamentary polls, expressing confidence in the revolution despite a decades-long US trade embargo, according to AFP.

Castro had not been seen in public since October 21, when he accompanied Elias Jaua, the current Venezuelan foreign minister, to the Hotel Nacional.

Castro’s visit to the voting precinct in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood was the main event in the elections, during which Cubans chose 612 members of the National Assembly as well as deputies of local legislatures.

“I am convinced that Cuban are really a revolutionary people,” 86-year-old Castro told reporters, who surrounded him at the polling station. “I don’t have to prove it. History has already proven it. And 50 years of the US blockade have not been — nor will it be — able to defeat us.”

The United States slapped a commercial, economic, and financial embargo against Cuba in October 1960. It was broadened to become a near-total embargo in 1962 .

Chavez has not been seen or heard from since his last cancer operation on December 11 in Havana. But Venezuelan National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said Sunday the Venezuelan leader was now making steady progress in his recovery.

Castro, who rose to power after the 1959 revolution, ceded the presidency to his younger brother Raul, 81, in July 2006 for health reasons.

R.S