Havana, Jan 13 (IANS/EFE) Cuba's Fidel Castro sent a letter to Argentine football icon Diego Armando Maradona to put a stop to rumours about his death, Venezuela-based cable network Telesur has reported.
A subsequent post on the network's Twitter account included photos of Maradona with the letter, dated Jan 11.
The retired star received the letter from the former Cuban leader just minutes before leaving Havana, where he had been filming episodes of his Telesur sports show "De Zurda", network chief Patricia Villegas said Monday.
The past week has seen a flurry of speculations about the health of the 88-year-old Castro, who was last seen in public a year ago.
The most recently released photographs of Fidel date from last August, when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro paid the leader of the Cuban Revolution a birthday visit.
Since recovering from the illness that forced him to hand over power to younger brother Raul Castro in 2006, Fidel has published written commentaries, known as "Reflections", in Cuba's official media. His latest piece appeared Oct 18.
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Fidel Castro is yet to comment publicly on the Dec 17 announcement by his brother and US President Barack Obama that Washington and Havana were restoring diplomatic ties after 53 years.
Maradona is an outspoken admirer of Castro.
--IANS/EFE
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