Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has met visiting foreign leaders occasionally since recovering from intestinal surgery in July 2006, but he did not appear in public for nearly four years. But in the last week he has made three public appearances.

On July 7, 2010 he visited the National Centre for Scientific Investigation (CNIC) in Havana. The news was released by two Cuban reporters on their blogs and quickly picked up by international news agencies. Finally the Cuban official media also published the news along with photos of the visit.

On July 12, Fidel was interviewed on the national TV program "Mesa Redonda (Round Table)." He expressed forthright views on the situation in the Middle East - in particular his fear that a US attack on Iran will lead to nuclear war.

On July 13, he made his third public appearance at the National Center for International Economic Research (CIEM), accompanied by his wife Dalia Soto del Valle and his two sons Alex and Antonio Castro. He again discussed the prospect of war in the Middle East and also brought up the plight of endangered species with CIEM President Osvaldo Martinez.

Castro's return to the spotlight coincided with Cuban government's decision to release 52 political prisoners in a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish Foreign Minister. The first group of seven prisoners arrived in Spain on July 13.

Their release was warmly applauded by western countries, including Spain and the U.S. But the Cuban concession did not produce any signal from the European Union that is it willing to abandon the "common position" on Cuba it adopted in 1996 to encourage a "transition to democracy" on the island.

Castro's public appearance is certainly significant. Cuba will hold its postponed Communist Party congress at the end of this year, the Cuban ambassador in Beijing told the Chinese Academy of Social Science.

Fidel's younger brother Raul was elected president of Cuba by the country's National Assembly in February 2008. But Fidel remains to be the first secretary of the Communist Party.

Fidel's public appearance let Cubans and the world know that he has recovered from his illness and that his mind is still sound and clear.

The implication is that Fidel is likely to be reelected first secretary or at the very least honorary chairman of the Cuban Communist Party at the forthcoming congress.

The author, Xu Shicheng, is a researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

(This post was first published in Chinese and translated by Zhang Ming'ai.)