Havana ? Fidel Castro made his first live appearance on Cuban airwaves since falling ill 14 months ago, sounding lucid and in good humor as he exchanged praise and jokes Sunday with the Venezuelan president.

Castro’s telephone call to a television and radio program came minutes after visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez aired a new videotape of their weekend meeting in which he sang revolutionary hymns to Castro and called him “father of all revolutionaries.”

Castro, who has not appeared in public since falling ill in July 2006, made his last live media appearance in February with a phone call to Chavez’s radio program broadcast from Venezuela. But there was a half-hour delay before that program was broadcast in Cuba.