Havana: Fidel Castro is "dismayed" over the recent death of literary legend Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was a longtime friend of the Cuban revolutionary icon, a senior official said Friday.
"Of course, he is dismayed about the death of Garcia Marquez, who was his dear friend," Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel told reporters.
It was the first official reaction from the 87-year-old Castro following the death of the Nobel-winning Colombian author in Mexico City last week.
The pair met after Castro grabbed power in the 1959 revolution. Garcia Marquez had come to Cuba as a journalist to cover Castro`s band of guerrillas.
They quickly became friends, bringing together two of Latin America`s most prominent figures of the 20th century. Garcia Marquez even worked for Cuba`s Prensa Latina news agency in Bogota and New York.
"Fidel is a man of great human sensitivity," Diaz-Canel told reporters at the Colombian embassy in Havana, where he had gone to sign a book of condolences.
"He feels the loss of a friend -- like anyone who has human sensibilities would."
Diaz-Canel also spoke briefly about Castro`s health, saying it was "very good" and adding, "He is working intensely on various things that have occupied his time recently."
