Cuba: Fidel Castro says he was near death

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Cuban leader Fidel Castro has given a rare interview to a foreign journalist and disclosed new details about just how sick he was when he relinquished power in 2006.

‘I was at death’s door,’ Castro told Mexico’s leftist daily La Jornada. ‘But I came back.’

The interview (link in Spanish), which was published in Monday’s editions, lasted about five hours and was conducted by the paper’s editor, Carmen Lira Saade.

Castro, who turned power over temporarily to his brother Raul in 2006, then formally quit the presidency in 2008, dropped from public view for most of that time. Until recently. The 84-year-old has started making speeches again and appearing on television.

— Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City