Fidel Castro Makes Surprise Appearance in Cuba

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

Castro’s visit to the voting precinct in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood was the main event in Sunday’s 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.”

In his comments, the revolutionary leader also praised the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), whose presidency Cuba formally assumed last week at a summit in Santiago, Chile.