Reuters via MSNBC News:
Fidel Castro undergoes intestinal surgery
HAVANA – Cuban President Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery Monday and delegated government functions provisionally to his younger brother Raul Castro, the government said in a televised statement signed by the Cuban leader.
Castro, who turns 80 on Aug. 13 and has led Cuba since a 1959 revolution, delegated his posts as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party, commander in chief of the armed forces and president of the executive council of state to his brother.
CNN:
Castro’s secretary, Carlos Balenciago, read a letter he said was from the president in which he said stress had forced him into surgery and that he would be in bed for several weeks after the operation was complete.
AP via New York Times:
The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to the letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.
”The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest,” the letter read, adding that extreme stress ”had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure.”