Fidel Castro announces retirement
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 could possibly step down in favour of a younger generation.
In the letter published on Granma's website during the middle of the night in Cuba, Mr Castro said he would not accept another term as president because of the health problems when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.
"The moment has arrived to propose and elect the Council of State, its president, vice-president," he added.
"I just want to carry on fighting like a soldier for our ideas."
The National Assembly is widely expected to elect Raul Castro as his successor.
The BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says nobody knows whether the decision has been prompted by a decline in Mr Castro's 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, our correspondent says.
Last month, Mr Castro was shown talking to his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Castro has resigned as president of Cuba to spend more time with being dead. In a couple of days there will be a new election with the candidates being Castro's brother and a severe beating and imprisonment.
It's expected to be close.
Government is like an anus; it’s necessary, but it’s never going to be anything pretty or worth celebrating.
Is it time for the U.S. government to finally let go of its pathetic grudge and start feeding the people of Cuba now? Or is it just going to keep starving them and keeping them from medical aid to prove some ridiculous "point"?
Is it time for the U.S. government to finally let go of its pathetic grudge and start feeding the people of Cuba now? Or is it just going to keep starving them and keeping them from medical aid to prove some ridiculous "point"?
If I get a say, then it's time for the U.S. Government to STOP feeding the people of any foreign country and start feeding the people of this one.
I'm adding a return to isolationism to the Rogue Party platform.
Yeah but Cuba just needs free trade. It is stable and organized enough to feed itself if we would stop sweating it over its politics. Haiti is the one that needs feeding. It is like that movie where long island is a prison. That is my take on Haiti only with more deforested land and no buildings. But basically just failed.
In alot of ways though if Cuba were starving we would have more of a moral obligation to feed it than other nations; since we went out of our way to sink its economy and all. It wasn't enough to just stand around thumping textbooks about how command economies don't work. We had to go and make sure they couldn't trade with anyone either in the process. Just to make sure that it wouldnt work! Which is kind of amusing if you really believe they dont work. It shouldn't have been neccesary than to negotiate embargos right?
ZOMBIE! *grabs his Lobo, and kicks on The Trooper*
If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We don't seek your counsel, we don't seek your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countryman. - Samuel Adams
When all the political prisoners are released, Cuba goes through remarkable social reforms, and my family's allowed to waltz back into Havana free of persecution, then we'll talk about lifting the embargo - until then, the only people in the U.S. hurt by it are the cigar smokers, and frankly, as much as I do love a good cigar, I'd rather see communist Cuba suffer.
It's not America's job to feed dictators or their people - they want American benefits, they'll play by American rules.
I didn't realize that we were the sole propreitors of the Chinese ability to feed themselves. That's a very interesting hypothesis you've got there, that an isolated China is as weak as an isolated Cuba. To quote Rudy Guiliani, that's an extraordinary statement that I don't think I've ever heard before.
I didn't realize that we were the sole propreitors of the Chinese ability to feed themselves. That's a very interesting hypothesis you've got there, that an isolated China is as weak as an isolated Cuba. To quote Rudy Guiliani, that's an extraordinary statement that I don't think I've ever heard before.
Actually I was responding more to the "they want American benefits, they'll play by American rules" part.
Cuba is an interesting case, former Cold War opponent, but we've normalized relations with Russia, China, Vietnam, pretty much anyone but them and North Korea. I have a hard time seeing them and N.K. in the same boat.
Fidel's cardinal sins...
Taking money from a lot of rich american investors
Taking money from Mob investors
Scaring the living crap out of us with the Missile crisis
Other than that, we've slept with dictators who've done a hell of a lot worse, and we'll do so in the future as well.
So really I agree with you mostly, we will bully anyone we can get away with, some targets are just harder or impossible to bully (like China).
