Castro roasts "birds of ill omen"

"[Fidel] Castro is in agony," read the headline on a story - said to be written by the 86-year-old former president himself - that appeared Monday in the Communist government's state-run cubadebate webpage.

The report was accompanied by photographs of Castro wearing a straw hat and working in a garden. Castro's jocular take was an answer to growing rumors that the former Cuban leader was gravely ill. The Miami Herald reported last weekend - quoting a Venezuelan doctor who claimed to have personal knowledge of his condition - that Castro had had a cerebral hemorrhage and was in a vegetative state.

"Birds of ill omen!" Castro wrote. "I can't even remember the last time when I had a headache," he wrote. "These rumor-mongers are really mean."

Castro specifically made reference to the Spanish daily Abc, which picked up on the story quoting the same Venezuelan doctor, Losé Marquina, who said he got his information from the former Cuban leader's personal maid. Marquina, who lives in Naples, Florida, said he doesn't believe that Castro is doing well despite his claims.

Fidel was kind enough to receive us yesterday. Fidel is very well"

Marquina was also the doctor who reported on the cancer afflicting Venezuela's Hugo Chávez over the past two years.

The day before the cubadebate article appeared, former Venezuelan Vice President Elías Jaua told journalists in Havana on Sunday that he had met with Castro and a group of people, and showed them a photo of that encounter. He said the image was taken the day before inside a van parked outside the Hotel Nacional where the former Cuban president accompanied his party. "Fidel was kind enough to receive us yesterday. We spoke for five hours. Fidel is very well."

The photo shows Jaua and Castro; Castro's wife, Dalia Soto del Valle; Juan Antonio Martínez, the manager of the Nacional; and two unidentified women.

Rumors about Castro's condition have been growing since March, when he made his last public appearance. In Miami, home to one of the largest Cuban exile communities in the world, Mayor Tomás Regalado, who was born in Havana, had announced plans to keep the city streets clear of protestors and celebrations should Castro die. He told them they would have room to celebrate inside the "Orange Bowl," but the famous stadium was torn down in 2008 and a new Miami Marlins ballpark was erected in its place.

Castro stepped down in 2006 to allow his brother Raúl to take control while he was recovering from an undisclosed illness. He regularly writes articles in Granma.