A Spanish doctor who has just examined Fidel Castro said today the Cuban leader was recovering and did not have cancer.
"He asks every day to return to work, but doctors advise him not to," surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido told a news conference in Madrid after returning from Cuba.
Garcia Sabrido, who flew to Cuba last week to examine the 80-year-old communist leader, said he did not need surgery but required muscular rehabilitation and a strict diet in order to recover.
"He does not have cancer, he has a problem with his digestive system," Garcia Sabrido told Reuters after the news conference.
Castro's disappearance from the public eye after emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding in July sparked frenzied speculation about his state of health.
US intelligence chief John Negroponte told the Washington Post on December 15th that Castro was likely to die within months.
But Garcia Sabrido said Castro did not need more surgery. "He has his intellectual activity intact, I'd say fantastic given the recovery from the previous surgery," he said.