HAVANA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Raul Castro, first secretary of Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), reappeared in public on Thursday after undergoing scheduled hernia surgery to welcome the island's president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, after his official visit to Venezuela.

According to a Cuban television report, Castro, dressed in his usual military uniform, welcomed Diaz-Canel and his wife, Liz Cuesta, at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport and appeared smiling and in good spirits.

The former Cuban president talked with Diaz-Canel about his short visit to Venezuela, where he met with his counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, and participated in other political and social activities.

Castro, who will turn 87 on June 3, underwent a scheduled surgical procedure to suppress a hernia earlier this month.

The information was disclosed due to his physical absence after a tragic plane crash close to Havana airport killed 113 people.

Since stepping down from the presidency in April, Castro did not appear in public until May 1 at the International Workers' Day celebration held in the Revolution Square.

A few days later, Castro met with Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, who traveled to Havana to attend a meeting of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Diaz-Canel returned to the Cuban capital after completing a two-day visit to Venezuela, the island's main political and economic ally.

In his first trip abroad as president, he held talks with Maduro, who was re-elected on May 20, and was granted the Order of the Liberator, Venezuela's highest distinction.

Diaz-Canel said the main reason for his visit was to show solidarity with Maduro after his reelection was rejected by the United States, the European Union and 13 other Latin American governments.

The Cuban president also paid tribute to Venezuelan independence hero, Simon Bolivar, visited the final resting place of late leader, Hugo Chavez, and met with Cuban doctors that work in Venezuela as part of a bilateral cooperation agreement.