Audio of the interview in Cuba has been aired along with photos of the 85-year-old Castro.

Castro is upbeat as he responds to rumors about his health saying, “You don’t say! Well, they haven’t told me anything.”

Castro has not appeared in public since a Communist Party summit in April, when he seemed unsteady and unusually frail. He has all but stopped writing his trademark opinion pieces.

The silence led to a fresh round of rumors among the anti-Castro exile community in Miami that he might be sick or near death.