HAVANA - An article bearing Fidel Castro's name appeared in state media Thursday that was critical of U.S. environmental policies.
President Bush's support of using crops to produce ethanol for cars could deplete food stocks in developing nations, the article in the Communist Party daily Granma asserted.
The headline read: "Condemned to Premature Death by Hunger and Thirst more than 3 Billion People of the World."
"This isn't an exaggerated number; it is actually cautious," read the article, which was signed by Castro and distributed by e-mail early Thursday to international correspondents by foreign ministry officials.
The article said that during a Monday meeting between Bush and American automobile manufacturers, "the sinister idea of converting food into combustible was definitively established as the economic line of the foreign policy of the United States."
Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul, the 75-year-old defense minister, on July 31 after announcing he had undergone intestinal surgery. He has not appeared in public since.
Fidel's health condition and his exact ailment are state secrets, but he is commonly believed to suffer from diverticular disease, a weakening of the walls of the colon common in older people.
On Wednesday, Ramon Castro said that his younger brother was doing very well almost eight months after surgery, but jokingly dodged reporters' questions about whether the leader would soon appear in public.
"He's in one piece," the 82-year-old Ramon said of 80-year-old Fidel as he toured a cattlemen's fair and rodeo. "These Castros are strong!"
