Absentee calls Raúl's speech 'perfect'

In a parting quip, Raúl Castro on Friday referred to a missing delegate to the National Assembly meeting he had just addressed.
It is important that all Assembly members agree with the proposals made to solve the national problems, Raúl said after concluding his speech, "but is very important that the fellow who sits there, where I sit," and Raúl made a gesture, as if stroking his beard, "is also fully in agreement." The audience chuckled.
Without naming the absent delegate, Raúl said that he took him a copy of the speech he planned to deliver. "He has a very active life, exercising, reading, meditating, thinking, (sometimes he tells me about international news that I have not had the time to read) and I asked him to answer me as quickly as possible. He set a record this time."
Soon thereafter, the absent delegate conveyed his approval to Raúl through a secretary: "It's perfect." So Raúl asked the secretary to express his congratulations to him. "To him?" the secretary asked. "Yes," replied Raúl, "because he has a very intelligent brother who learned everything from him."
"Laughter and applause" followed Raúl's narrative, according to the official transcript. (For an English-language translation by the BBC, click here.)
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.