Fidel Castro Announces Retirement Website
Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not return to the presidency, in a letter published by official Communist Party paper, Granma. "I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," he wrote in the letter. Mr Castro handed over power temporarily to his brother, Raul, in July 2006 when he underwent intestinal surgery. The 81-year-old has ruled Cuba since leading a communist revolution in 1959. In December, Mr Castro indicated that he might possibly step down in favour of younger leaders, saying "my primary duty is not to cling to any position". Soon afterwards, Raul Castro appeared to suggest that his older brother still had an important political role to play, saying the president still had full use of his mental faculties and was being consulted on all important policy issues. 'No saying farewell' In the letter, published on Granma's website during the middle of the night in Cuba, Mr Castro said he would not accept another five-year term as president when the National Assembly meets on Sunday, because of the health problems. "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer," he wrote. However, Mr Castro insisted he was "not saying farewell". "I just want to carry on fighting like a soldier of ideas," he added. "I will continue writing under the title, Reflections of Comrade Fidel." "I will be one more weapon in the arsenal that you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I will be careful." The National Assembly is widely expected to elect 76-year-old Raul Castro as his successor, although analysts say there is speculation about a possible generational jump with Vice-President Carlos Lage Davila, 56, a leading contender. If elected, Raul Castro has indicated that major economic reforms could be on the way. The BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says nobody knows whether Mr Castro's decision not to seek another five-year term has been prompted by a decline in his health - it has been an official secret since the moment he was taken ill. The president has not been seen in public for 18 months, although the government occasionally releases photographs and pre-edited video of him meeting visiting leaders from around the world. Last month, Mr Castro was shown talking to his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who described him as being lucid and in good health. Mixed legacy In power since he led a communist revolution which ousted the regime of President Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Mr Castro has been a dominant force in Latin American politics and a thorn in the side of the United States. Under his leadership, Cuba underwent an economic and social transformation. Most foreign and local businesses were nationalised, land reform was introduced, and education and health care for the poor improved. His government saw off an early threat from Cuban exiles, backed by the US, who launched an abortive invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. The following year saw the Cuban missile crisis, when the US and the Soviet Union came to the brink of war over the presence of Soviet nuclear warheads in Cuba. Mr Castro also backed a string of left-wing leaders in South America and Africa and, in 1975, sent thousands of troops to fight in Angola. It is said that Mr Castro has been the target of many CIA-sponsored assassination plots as a result of such policies - in 1999 a Cuban interior ministry official put the figure at 637. Our correspondent says the news of his retirement will take some digesting by Cubans, 70% of whom have known no other leader. Mr Castro will leave a mixed legacy, he adds, with both friend and foe recognising him as an iconic leader and major figure in the post-war era.
Source: MJFM
