SANTIAGO (AP) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro's eldest son said Saturday that his ailing father was on the mend and in good spirits. "He is recovering, I see him recovering," Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, 54, told reporters in the southern Chilean city of Valdivia. "He is in good spirits and optimistic."

The elder Castro has not appeared in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July and temporarily ceding power to his younger brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro.

Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, a Spanish surgeon who has treated Castro, said last month the Cuban leader does not have cancer — as U.S. intelligence officials have claimed — and is recovering slowly from a serious operation.

Castro Diaz-Balart, a nuclear scientist, was in Chile for the inauguration of a scientific research center. On Friday, he attended a dinner hosted by President Michelle Bachelet.