Cuban officials told lawmakers from the US House of Represent-atives visiting Havana on Sunday that Cuban President Fidel Castro did not have cancer or any other terminal illness and that he would be making a public appearance shortly, said Democratic Rep-resentative William Delahunt, one of the legislators.
But Delahunt said he concluded from discussions with senior Cuban officials and diplomats that Castro would not return to running Cuba on a day-to-day basis.
Delahunt said he understood that government administration had been definitively passed to Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro, Fidel's brother.
"The Cubans were emphatic, and I believe them, that Fidel does not have cancer, and that the illness he does have is not terminal," Delahunt said in a telephone interview last night after he returned to Washington.
He said Cuban officials assured the delegation that Castro was planning to re-emerge shortly. Castro, 80, has controlled Cuba since he took power after a revolution in 1959.
Castro has not been seen in public since July 26 and Cuba has guarded the details of his medical condition as a state secret.
Cuban officials announced that he underwent intestinal surgery in late July.
He did not make an appearance at celebrations for his 80th birthday earlier this month, prompting a new rush of rumors that he had died.
If Castro re-appears, "this will not be Fidel sitting at his desk," Delahunt said.
"This will be Fidel Castro is alive and recovering," he said.
He said he anticipated that if Castro did resume a political role, it would be setting broad policy.
"The functioning of the government, that transition has already occurred," he said.
The bipartisan delegation of 10 representatives, which Delahunt described as the largest Congressional group to visit Cuba during Castro's rule, arrived on Friday and spent 48 hours in Havana.
It was led by Delahunt and Republican Representative Jeff Flake, the leaders of the Cuba Working Group in the US House of Representatives.
The lawmakers met with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Roque, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon and Economic Minister Yadira Garcia, among others.
They did not have any contact with either Castro.
The Communist Party newspaper reported on Saturday that Fidel Castro had telephoned several Cuban lawmakers on Friday.
He has also spoken recently to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Chavez has said.
The Cuban officials did not disclose what illness Castro had, but they insisted he was recovering and said he had avoided public appearances to hasten his recuperation, Delahunt said.
Fidel Castro passed his political authority to his brother before his surgery.
"It seems that the Cuban government may not be ready to say that a new era has begun," Flake said when asked why Raul Castro had not met with the lawmakers.
The U.S. lawmakers in Havana said issues of human rights and economic freedom are important, but that it was time for the two countries to find creative ways to solve their differences.
In a joint statement released Sunday they suggested some specific issues to negotiate, such as migration, drug trafficking and the environmental impact of Cuban oil explorations in the Gulf of Mexico.
``I think this is the golden opportunity [for talks] ... especially as we make a transition in Washington,'' said Gregory Meeks, a Democrat, referring to his party's upcoming takeover of congress.
But other US representatives said they were surprised at what they called the rigidity of some Cuban officials, who said they have no plans to make changes in the island's political or economic system in the future.
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