Fidel Castro Shares Photos, Quiets Death Rumors

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is speaking out about his health for the first time since reports were circulated that he was on in his deathbed.

In the state-run news site Cuba Debate on Monday, Castro addressed the rumors surrounding his health and shared pictures of himself gardening.

"A Venezuelan doctor who lives who-knows-where said that Castro was suffering from a stroke in the right half of the brain," Castro wrote. "This presumed doctor, who has abandoned his compatriots qualified my state of health as 'close to being in a vegetative state'."

Castro said the reports about his health are deceiving.

"Although many people in the world are deceived by the mass media, almost all in the hands of the privileged and wealthy, who publish this crap, people believe less and less in them," Castro wrote. "Nobody likes to be deceived, even the most incorrigible liar, waiting to be told the truth."

In a message on Wednesday, Castro congratulated doctors graduating from a Cuban medical institute on the 50th anniversary of the institute's founding.

Castro, 86, has been noticeably absent since his surgery in 2006 and since his brother Raul Castro took control of the government.

He was last seen publicly in March, when he met with Pope Benedict XVI during the pontiff's visit to Cuba.

Castro's son Alex Castro told Cuban state media that Castro is "well, following his daily routine, reading, and exercising."

Castro usually writes a blog for the state's newspaper and his thoughts have been noticebly absent from the papges.

"I stopped publishing "Reflections," because it is not my intent to occupy the pages of our press, which is focused on other tasks at hand in the country," Castro wrote. "I like to write and I write, I like to study and study. There are many tasks in the area of knowledge. Never the sciences, for example, advanced to such an astonishing speed."

Ironically, Castro said that the does "not even remember what a headache" is, but the article is titled, "Fidel Castro is Agonizing."

According to the Associated Press, Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua met with a Castro for five hours on Sunday.