Fidel Castro appears in first photographs since August

After weeks of renewed speculation over his health, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro emerged Tuesday for the first time since August in photographs published by Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. Castro, 88, is seen hunched over while seated, but he appears animated as he speaks with a student leader.

The pictures of Castro with student leader Randy Perdomo were taken on Jan. 23, according to Perdomo's first-person account, which appeared accompanied by 21 photos, including images of the former Cuban leader — accompanied by his wife, Dalia Soto del Valle — viewing a video and holding a newspaper.

Rumors of Castro’s death had intensified since the historic Dec. 17 announcement by his younger brother, and current president, Raúl Castro, and U.S. President Barack Obama, that the two longtime adversaries would restore diplomatic ties.

On Tuesday, Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state leading the U.S. in talks with the island nation, said more meetings on establishing full diplomatic relations between the two countries were scheduled for later this month. She said the U.S. would not diminish its support for democracy in Cuba as a condition for any agreement to restore formal ties with the island.

Fidel Castro, who periodically writes a column in Granma, went silent after the U.S.-Cuba announcement until finally commenting a week ago, when he offered lukewarm support for the pact his brother reached with Obama.

Last week, the Brazilian theologian Frei Betto, a proponent of liberation theology — a tradition that contends that Jesus's teachings require followers to fight for social and economic justice — met Castro and said the former leader was in good health, appearing skinny but lucid.

Castro stepped down from power due to poor health, handing over to his brother provisionally in 2006 and definitively in 2008. Though he receives visitors, he has not appeared in public for more than a year.

With wire services