HAVANA — Fidel Castro made his first live appearance on Cuban airwaves since falling ill 14 months ago, sounding lucid and in good humor as he exchanged praise and jokes Sunday with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Castro’s telephone call to a television and radio program came minutes after Chavez aired a new videotape of their weekend meeting in which he sang revolutionary hymns to Castro and called him “father of all revolutionaries.”
“I am very touched when you sing about Che,” Castro told Chavez during his hour-long call to Chavez’s “Alo, Presidente!” program – referring to revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, to whom the program was dedicated.
Castro, who has not appeared in public since falling ill in July 2006, made his last live media appearance in February with a phone call to Chavez’s radio program broadcast from Venezuela. But there was a half-hour delay before that program was broadcast in Cuba.
Earlier Sunday, Cuban state media released two new official photos of the men together but provided no details about the ailing Cuban leader’s health.
In both the video and the photographs, Castro wore the red, white and blue track suit that has become his typical dress during his convalescence. Both men sat in bamboo chairs at an undisclosed location.
Chavez has visited the 81-year-old Castro several times since the Cuban leader underwent emergency intestinal surgery in late July 2006 and ceded authority to his younger brother Raul.
