HAVANA — Retired leader Fidel Castro voted in Cuba's general election on Sunday and chatted with well-wishers and local reporters in Havana for more than an hour in his first extended public appearance since 2010.

Castro had voted from his home in three previous elections since taking ill in 2006 and ceding power to his brother Raul two years later.

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A stooped, snow-white-bearded Castro, 86, was seen on state-run television as he cast his ballot in the late afternoon, wearing a blue plaid shirt and light blue jacket.

The announcer said Castro talked about efforts to reform the economy, Latin American integration and other matters, including ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

He was heard in a weak voice praising popular participation in Sunday's election.

"The people are truly revolutionary. They have really sacrificed. We don't have to prove it; history will. Fifty years of the (U.S.) blockade and they haven't given in," he said.

Cubans went to the polls to elect a Communist Party-selected slate of 612 deputies to the National Assembly and more than 1,000 delegates to provincial assemblies during a time of change in how they live and work but not in how they vote.

President Raul Castro and other leaders were also shown on television casting their ballots and commenting on the importance of the election as a show of support for reforms and independence from the United States.

Raul Castro is decentralizing the state-dominated economy, allowing more space for private initiatives in agriculture and retail services, and he has lifted many restrictions on personal freedoms, such as travel and buying and selling homes and cars.

He has also introduced term limits (two five-year stints) for top government posts, but he has drawn the line at legalizing other political parties and contested elections.

Ted Piccone, deputy director of foreign policy at the Washington think tank the Brookings Institution, said Raul Castro's policies provide interesting insights for observers of the government, which continues to have a tense relationship with the United States.

"The one-party elections in Cuba, alongside steady but slow progress on opening the economy, represent how the current regime intends to manage change on the island -- giving the people more space to participate in the economy while controlling their role in politics and civic life," Piccone said. 

Some 95 percent of Cuba's 8.7 million residents over 16 years of age were expected to cast ballots with polling stations on just about every block. Abstention is frowned upon.

'All revolutionaries'
Reuters talked with more than half a dozen voters before they entered the polls in Havana. None of them knew the candidates on the national slate from their districts.

"What's certain is they are all revolutionaries and that's what matters," said retiree Eduardo Sanchez.

"I vote because I feel I have to, and it doesn't really matter because the deputies have no power anyway," said one young woman, who declined to give her name.

The curious read biographies of candidates posted at the polls, then cast paper ballots in cardboard voting boxes guarded by school students.

Others simply entered the polls and checked a box for the entire slate.

The candidates were equal to the number of positions up for a vote, the only alternative being to not vote for a certain candidate or leave blank or spoil the ballot.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

I'm always amazed at how fast rumors swim down the Florida Straits but it's sure hard getting news to go upstream.

A week ago, I had barely cleared Cuban immigration and had just stepped into the terminal to grab my luggage when three Jose Marti airport skycaps jumped on me with questions about Fidel Castro's state of health.

They said everyone getting off the Miami flights told the same story -- that Castro lay on his deathbed and the only people left in the dark were Cubans living on the island and getting their news from state-run media.

Over the next week, I would be asked the same questions at least a hundred times. "Is Fidel dead? Did Fidel suffer a massive stroke? Is he just hanging on by life support?"

Ironically, I was in Havana looking for the same answers. 

Fidel Castro re-emerges, proving he's alive during trip to farm

Friends and acquaintances expected me to have the inside track on information since I had flown in from south Florida, home to 1 million Cuban Americans and a place where speculation about anything having to do with Castro has spawned a cottage industry.

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We know now that all the rumors were rubbish.

The 86-year-old Castro surfaced over the weekend to prove that he's not only alive but still kicking.

He wrote an article and released proof-of-life photos taken Saturday that showed the retired revolutionary working in his garden.

In his essay, he sounded like the old Fidel Castro, the revolutionary icon who spent more than half his life growling at the Western press for pushing "imperialist propaganda" that "deceives" the public and publishes "crap."

In this case, he said, the "crap" was spreading "voracious lies" from a Venezuelan doctor who claimed to have inside information on Castro's health. 

Castro: I'm so healthy I don't 'even remember what a headache is'

The doctor, a pulmonary specialist who runs a sleep clinic in south Florida, told numerous newspapers and news agencies that Castro had suffered a massive bleed in his brain and was dangling on life support. More than once, he insisted that Castro was brain dead and that he would never be seen in public again.

When asked what his source was, the doctor would say "unnamed informants" in Cuba and Venezuela.

Defying journalistic logic, that justification became enough for a number of reputable news organizations to report these allegations. In one week, such an uproar was created that Castro himself had to emerge from retirement to prove the rumors false, and also to give us a glimpse of his old self.

He made sure the piece printed Monday added his opinion to a page of history on the 50th anniversary of the October Missile Crisis. Castro defended his decision to allow Moscow to station missiles in Cuba as "ethically irreproachable," since Washington had similar missiles in Turkey.

"We will never apologize to anyone for what we did," he stated. "The truth is that half a century has passed, and we are still here with our heads held high."

Castro is a survivor, and I think the retired revolutionary probably even enjoyed the uproar.

I know his supporters did.

I received no fewer than six phone calls this morning before I even had my first cup of coffee. They all came from the old-timers I had been calling all week to see what they knew about Castro's health.

This morning, they were calling back with their answers. One retired military man even quoted to me the last paragraph of Castro's article: "Vultures! I don't even get headaches. To prove what liars you are, I present you with these photos."

He then told me he would wait while I connected to the Internet on my achingly slow dial-up line to have a look for myself.

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HAVANA -- Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dismissed reports that he was dead or near death in an article published on Monday in Cuba's state-run press.

He accused news agencies and enemies of Cuba of spreading "stupidities" about him, particularly a report from a Spanish newspaper last week that said he had suffered a massive stroke and was in a vegetative state.

"Birds of bad omen! I don't even remember what a headache is," he wrote.

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The article in Communist Party newspaper Granma was accompanied by photographs (in Spanish) showing him walking outside on a sunny day on what appeared to be a farm.

He wore a straw hat and red plaid shirt, used a walking cane and, in one photo, held a copy of Granma from Friday.

The photos, Castro said, were "proof of what liars they are."

Intense speculation
Castro's health has been the subject of intense speculation for years, but the rumors gained force in recent days after he failed to publicly congratulate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a top ally, on his Oct. 7 electoral victory.

The 86-year-old former Cuban leader has not appeared since March, when he was shown greeting visiting Pope Benedict XVI, and he has also ceased writing his once-constant opinion pieces, the last of which appeared in June. 

On blogs and Twitter, he has been declared dead or near dead numerous times, spurred by a long, unexplained absence from the public eye.

Elias Jaua, a former Venezuelan vice president, said Sunday he had met with the Cuban revolutionary leader over the weekend, showing reporters pictures of the meeting and saying Castro was in good health and lucid.

Castro had not written one of his "Reflections" opinion columns for state press since June 19 or been seen publicly since March.

More coverage of Cuba on NBCNews.com

His last few Reflections were also Twitter-like in their brevity and slightly oddball in content, which left Cubans wondering about their former leader's mental state.

'I like to study and I study'
But Castro said he had decided to stop the columns for a practical reason.

Fidel Castro re-emerges, proving he's alive during trip to farm

"I stopped publishing Reflections because surely it is not my role to occupy the pages of our press, dedicated to other work the country requires," he said.

As for how he spends his time now, Castro wrote, "I like to write and I write. I like to study and I study."

Castro also used the article to defend his role in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which 50 years ago this month brought the world to the brink of nuclear war when the United States discovered that the Soviet Union had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Castro said Cuba viewed the missiles as necessary to stopping a U.S. invasion of the island 90 miles from Florida and had no regrets about its decision.

"Our conduct was ethically irreproachable. We will never apologize to anyone for what we did," he said.

Castro stepped down in 2006 following a severe illness, handing power to his brother Raul. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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New in this version: Adds photo of Castro at reported meeting 

Updated at 2:33 p.m. ET: Several people, including the former vice president of Venezuela, say they saw Fidel Castro — reported last week to have been on his deathbed — out and about in public on Saturday.

The Cuban government referred all request for comment to the state-owned Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, where hotel officials said guests and staff chatted with Castro on Saturday after his car dropped off former Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua.

PhotoBlog: Former Venezuelan VP says he met with Fidel Castro

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Jaua told NBC News that he met with Castro for five hours on Saturday. He showed reporters a photograph that he said was taken of the meeting. It was not immediately possible to confirm when the photo was taken.  

Castro, 86, was widely rumored among Cuban exiles and Latin American media organizations to have suffered a massive stroke and was said to be on a respirator, unable to talk or feed himself. His family denied those rumors. 

Castro last's public appearance was in March, when he met with Pope Benedict XVI in Havana. In response to the health rumors last week, the government read a statement in his name at an event marking the 50th anniversary of a Havana medical school. 

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HAVANA -- Pope Benedict met with Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro after saying mass in Havana Wednesday, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

The meeting comes toward the close of the pope's three-day visit to the communist-run island, during which the pontiff called for greater freedoms and a bigger role for the Roman Catholic Church in Cuban society.

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Fidel Castro said Tuesday in one of his columns, or "Reflections," published online that he would meet briefly with the pope "with pleasure." Castro is now mostly retired but still occasionally writes columns and meets with visiting leaders.

According to the Vatican spokesman, this is the first time since his illness that Castro has gone out to call on a visitor. Heads of state usually come to see him.

Castro was dressed in a blazer with what looked like a scarf wrapped around his neck. He was accompanied by his wife and two adult sons.

According to the Vatican, the two men had an animated dialogue. They joked about their age, and the pope told Castro: "I'm old, but I still know how to do my job."

Castro told the pope he had been following his visit on television and asked about changes in the Catholic liturgy since his days in Jesuit schools, according to Lombardi.

In his prepared departure remarks, the pope criticized the U.S. embargo, saying that the task of building a society of broad vision is "worsened when restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the country, unfairly burden its people."

Earlier Wednesday, before his meeting with Castro, the pope urged Cubans to search for "authentic freedom" as he celebrated an open-air Mass for some 300,000 people in Havana's Revolution Square.

Crowds began gathering during the night to hear the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics speak in the sprawling plaza that Castro, 85, used to fill with big crowds and fiery revolutionary rhetoric in hours-long speeches.

Surrounded by 10-story high images of Castro's revolutionary comrades Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the pope read a sermon that continued one of the main themes of his trip -- that Cuba should build a more open society, based on truth, justice and reconciliation.

"The truth is a desire of the human person, the search for which always supposes the exercise of authentic freedom," the pontiff said.

In an apparent dig at Marxism, the pope also said some "wrongly interpret this search for the truth, leading them to irrationality and fanaticism; they close themselves in 'their truth,' and try to impose it on others."

Delicate dance for Pope Benedict in Cuba

Hours before the Mass began, the area was filled with people waving Cuban flags and wearing broad hats and holding umbrellas to shield them from the sun.

They wildly welcomed the successor of the much-beloved Pope John Paul, who made a historic, groundbreaking trip to Cuba in 1998 and preached from the same square.

'Message of love'
Benedict, wearing purple vestments, read out a virtual shopping list of rights that the Church still lacked in Cuba as President Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, sat in the front row. Both of the Castro brothers were educated by Jesuits, the worldwide Catholic order.

"To carry out this duty, she [Cuba] must count on basic religious freedom, which consists in her being able to proclaim and to celebrate her faith also in public, bringing to others the message of love, reconciliation and peace which Jesus brought to the world," he said.

PhotoBlog: Pope Benedict celebrates mass with 300,000 Cubans

While Benedict acknowledged "with joy" the great improvements since John Paul's visit, he added that "nonetheless, this must continue forwards, and I wish to encourage the country's government authorities to strengthen what has already been achieved and advance along this path of genuine service to the true good of Cuban society as a whole."

The faithful could be "at once a citizen and a believer", the pope assured the government, adding that strengthening religious freedom consolidates social bonds and lays the groundwork for securing the rights of future generations.

"This is why the Church seeks to give witness by her preaching and teaching, both in catechesis and in schools and universities," he said.

The mass was also watched by Miami's Cuban Catholics, including a crowd of about 80 people at the Ermita Caridad Church in Coconut Grove, Fla., NBC 6 Miami reported.

Since his arrival in the eastern city of Santiago, the pontiff has spoken of Cuba's need for reconciliation and a more open society, with the Church at its side as a buffer against "trauma" or social upheaval.

"We hope he brings peace ... and an end to the U.S. embargo," said Belkis Martin Rodriguez, 49, walking to Revolution Square dressed in jean shorts, with her mother and 8-year-old son.

Asked if she hoped the visit would bring reconciliation between the communist government, dissidents and exiles in Miami, she said, "Let each remain in their own place. If people left for Miami, let them stay there and be happy. Let the Church stick to its own field, religion, and let the government handle the politics."

Pope, Raul Castro meet, but Cuban official vows no political reform

In talks on Tuesday with Raul Castro, the pope urged a bigger role for the Church and asked that the government consider making Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Christ's death, a national holiday. Good Friday is less than two weeks away. Fidel Castro reinstated Christmas as a holiday ahead of the landmark visit of John Paul that helped improve long-strained Church-state relations.

Jailed U.S. contractor
The Vatican during Tuesday's meetings also made several "humanitarian requests," without giving details but possibly having to do with political prisoners or jailed American contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year sentence for illegally installing Internet networks on the communist-run island.

The State Department would be very grateful if the Pope were to raise the issue of Gross during his visit, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"We obviously are hopeful that the Pope will continue to be strong on all of the human rights issues in Cuba, religious freedom, and it would be a very, very good thing if the Cuban government were to take this opportunity to release Alan Gross," Nuland said.

At a time when Church-state relations are the warmest they've been since the 1959 revolution, Benedict has not been afraid to poke the Cuban government in some sensitive places.

On the flight to Mexico beginning his trip on Friday, the pope said communism "does not correspond with reality" and that Cuba needs a new economic model.

However, Marino Murillo, a vice president in the Council of Ministers and the country's economic reforms czar, made it clear that change to Cuba's one-party political system is not in the works.

"In Cuba, there won't be political reform," he said at a news conference at Havana's Hotel Nacional, the international press center for the pope visit. "We are talking about the update of the Cuban economic model to make our socialism sustainable."

Murillo said the government welcomed all ideas, but would not allow them to be imposed on the country.

In response, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said "the Church is not trying to impose solutions. We know it is a long road and that the history of Cuba is complex."

Reuters, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report. 

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HAVANA - Cuban authorities detained about 70 members of the dissident group Ladies in White over the weekend, drawing fresh attention to human rights issues days ahead of a visit by Pope Bendict XVI.

Eighteen women, dressed in their customary white clothing, were rounded up and taken away in buses after they left their permitted route through Havana's Miramar neighborhood during their weekly Sunday march in the Cuban capital, said a Reuters cameraman on the scene.

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The arrests are likely to bring into focus the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Communist Cuban regime, which is officially atheist but has recently had better relations with Christian groups.

A One Cuba/Una Cuba Facebook campaign has been started by Cuban Americans in Florida, calling for the Pope to meet the country’s dissidents during his two-day visit, which begins March 26.

The Miami Herald notes that Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1998 was followed by concessions from the government including permission for television broadcast of Masses while Christmas Day became a national holiday.

However, Catholic authorities said last week a visit with dissidents was not on the pope's program.

Ladies in White member Magaly Norvis Otero Suarez told Reuters that 16 of the women were arrested Saturday evening when they attempted to stage a march in central Havana and another 36 were detained Sunday morning as they prepared to go to mass at Santa Rita Catholic Church, then stage their silent march along 5th Avenue, Miramar's main boulevard.

They had gathered at the home of their deceased leader Laura Pollan over the weekend to commemorate the anniversary of the arrest of 75 government opponents in March 2003 that gave rise to the organization, Otero said.

Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez told Reuters that along with the estimated 70 women detained in Havana, another 12 dissidents were arrested in other provinces.

"The Ladies in White," or "Damas de Blanco" in Spanish, were the wives and mothers of the 75, who received lengthy sentences but have all been freed, most as part of a 2010 agreement brokered by the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in the release of 130 political prisoners.

The group has continued its weekly marches, which are the only public protests allowed in Cuba, saying there are still more political prisoners to be freed.

They are allowed to walk along a 12-block stretch of 5th Avenue, but are quickly detained when they vary from the prescribed route. On Sunday, they continued toward the Malecon, Havana's famed seaside boulevard, before police swooped in.

In numerous similar incidents in the past, the women have been released within hours without charges.

By early evening on Sunday some of the women had been freed.

'Not very favorable climate'
"They released us an hour ago and have begun releasing the others, though many have yet to report in," Otero, one of the 18 women picked up at noon on Sunday, said by telephone. The detentions followed a controversial incident last week when 13 dissidents occupied a Havana Catholic church demanding that Pope Benedict mediate an end to Communist rule.

After two days, they were ousted by police at the Church's request, which raised the hackles of Cuba's small dissident community.

Sanchez said the arrests are "creating a not very favorable climate for the pope's visit."

"The fault lies first with the government for its excessive repression as always, and the Catholic authorities' error for allowing the violent expulsion of dissidents from the church," he said.

Ladies in White leader Berta Soler has said her group would like to meet briefly with the pope to discuss human rights in Cuba. She was not at the Sunday march because she was among those detained beforehand.

The Cuban government views dissidents as "mercenaries" in the pay of the United States, its longtime ideological foe.

However, the visit of the Pope throws the activities of groups such as Ladies in White into the spotlight.

Amnesty International has previously raised concerns about their treatment, saying Ladies in White “have repeatedly suffered harassment from Cuban authorities for their peaceful protests”.

Last year a report issued by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said rocks and iron bars were used against them in one attack, causing them “injuries, some considerable."

However, the Ladies in White distanced themselves from activists who occupied a Catholic church last week demanding that Pope Benedict XVI press Havana for political freedom.

That group of dissidents, allied to the little-known Republican Party of Cuba (PRC), were holed up since Tuesday at the Our Lady of Charity church in central Havana.

"I don't know them," said Guillermo Farinas, a dissident who has been on hunger strike more than 20 times, told the AFP by telephone. He warned the activists to "beware of carrying out any type of provocative action that could damage the credibility of the peaceful political opposition in Cuba."

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Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.