BBC NEWS | World | Americas | End of Castro's half century in power

End of Castro's half century in power
By Michael Voss
BBC News, Havana



The news that Fidel Castro is stepping down as president after almost 50 years in power came in the middle of the night, through the online edition of the official Communist party newspaper Granma.
Cuba's newly-elected parliament is due to meet for the first time this Sunday to elect a new executive council of state, whose president will become president of Cuba for a new five-year term.

Under the headline "Message from the Commander in Chief", the 81-year-old revolutionary leader wrote:

"I will not aspire to nor accept - I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept - the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief."

This effectively marks the end of an era.

Mr Castro has ruled this Caribbean island since the revolution in 1959. Most Cubans have known no other leader or system, with more than 70% of the population born after the revolution.

Mr Castro handed temporary power to his brother Raul a year-and-a-half ago after undergoing emergency surgery.

He has not been seen in public since then and had hinted in recent newspaper articles that he might be about to retire.

Iconic figure





The last of the great Cold War leaders, Mr Castro came to power in 1959, reshaping Cuba into a communist state just 150km (93 miles) from the United States.

Apart from monarchs, he is the world's longest ruling head of state.

Famous for his beard, cigar and military fatigues he has long been an icon of the left and a thorn in the side of 10 US presidents.

His foes call him a dictator who drove Cuba to the brink of economic ruin and who imprisoned dissidents and opposition leaders in this one-party state.

He has survived assassination attempts, a failed invasion and a tough US embargo since he led the revolution.

The Cuban missile crisis 45 years ago was the closest the world has come to nuclear war.

Mr Castro pursued an egalitarian society, with free healthcare and education.


His control of power ensured Cuba remained communist long after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe.

Mr Castro's illness remains a state secret, though it is believed to be diverticulitis, an inflammation of the stomach.

In an interview last year the ailing Cuban leader said that he had undergone a series of operations.

When news of his illness broke, there was dancing on the streets of Miami as anti-Castro exiles wrongly assumed that the end was nigh and that Cuba's communist revolution could not survive without Fidel Castro at the helm.

Internal debate

A year-and-a-half later and Raul Castro appears to be firmly in control.






So far it has been a smooth transition, outwardly little has changed.

But in a keynote speech last year Raul Castro told the nation that "structural and conceptual" changes were needed to get the island's faltering economy back on its feet.

All of this has raised widespread expectations that major economic changes at least are on the way.

In recent months Raul Castro has initiated a wide-sweeping internal debate over what changes people want to see.

Earlier this month the BBC obtained a tape of one of these meeting, which showed students complaining about how low wages are, and asking why they could not travel abroad or have free access to the internet.

On the human rights front, Cuba has committed itself to signing the main United Nations conventions on human, political and economic rights later this year.

According to the illegal but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights, there were 234 prisoners of conscience being held in Cuba, about 20% less than when Raul Castro took over. A further four prisoners were released over the weekend.

It is now widely expected that Raul Castro will be confirmed as official head of state on Sunday, although an outside chance remains that the baton could pass to one of the younger generation of communists, such as de facto Prime Minister Carlos Lage.

europeans and euro-americans and cuban americans are calling for democracy.

what does the future hold

LadyDay,
I have mixed feelings about it. While he wasn't the worst dictator in the world, he did caused his people a lot of heartache. But I don't know about his brother. They said that he has the same thoughts of rule as Fidel. For all we know, he could be far worse than Fidel, or maybe better, well see. I just don't think that Bush should be counting on Democracy so soon . We should see how he do before they jump for joy.

Big up Castro.

Can anyone explain to me why the US can do megabusiness with China (to the point that it has a multi million trade deficit with China) and yet enforce an iron clad embargo against Cuba? Are you really going to tell me that Cuba is worse than China? I agree that both are communist dictatorships, but why the difference in treatment by the US? Pure hypocrisy.

Although Castro is not my favorite person and I don't agree with the oppression that exists in Cuba, I am glad that he is stepping down on his own terms and stood defiantly while the Americans spent restless nights trying to figure out how to get rid of him.

Cuba must hold on to what has made it so respected through out the rest of the world ( mostly it’s defiance over American hegemony, ). Does it really need to change though ?, ultimately will this mean becoming much like every other so called independent Caribbean island and become a satellite of the united states of AMERICA

He ain't dead yet.

I am kinda gutted. I always wanted to visit Cuba while he was still in power, even thought I'd make it this year (2008) to late now I guess.

Rafael Correa
March 05, 2008 By Fidel Castro


Fidel Castro's ZSpace Page Z Space - Fidel*Castro

or many years I have occupied the honorable position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of over 95% of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first National Assembly was established on December 2nd that same year; this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

There were those overseas who, aware of my critical health condition, thought that my provisional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the position of President of the State Council, which I left to First Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final. But Raul, who is also minister of the Armed Forces on account of his own personal merits, and the other comrades of the Party and State leadership were unwilling to consider me out of public life despite my unstable health condition.

It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-à-vis an adversary which had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply.

Later, in my necessary retreat, I was able to recover the full command of my mind as well as the possibility for much reading and meditation. I had enough physical strength to write for many hours, which I shared with the corresponding rehabilitation and recovery programs. Basic common sense indicated that such activity was within my reach. On the other hand, when referring to my health I was extremely careful to avoid raising expectations since I felt that an adverse ending would bring traumatic news to our people in the midst of the battle. Thus, my first duty was to prepare our people both politically and psychologically for my absence after so many years of struggle. I kept saying that my recovery "was not without risks."

My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath. That's all I can offer.

To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.

In short letters addressed to Randy Alonso, Director of the Round Table National TV Program, --letters which at my request were made public-- I discreetly introduced elements of this message I am writing today, when not even the addressee of such letters was aware of my intention. I trusted Randy, whom I knew very well from his days as a student of Journalism. In those days I met almost on a weekly basis with the main representatives of the University students from the provinces at the library of the large house in Kohly where they lived. Today, the entire country is an immense University.

Following are some paragraphs chosen from the letter addressed to Randy on December 17, 2007:

"I strongly believe that the answers to the current problems facing Cuban society, which has, as an average, a twelfth grade of education, almost a million university graduates, and a real possibility for all its citizens to become educated without their being in any way discriminated against, require more variables for each concrete problem than those contained in a chess game. We cannot ignore one single detail; this is not an easy path to take, if the intelligence of a human being in a revolutionary society is to prevail over instinct.

"My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, much less to stand in the way of younger persons, but rather to contribute my own experience and ideas whose modest value comes from the exceptional era that I had the privilege of living in.

"Like Niemeyer, I believe that one has to be consistent right up to the end."

Letter from January 8, 2008:

"I am a firm supporter of the united vote (a principle that preserves the unknown merits), which allowed us to avoid the tendency to copy what came to us from countries of the former socialist bloc, including the portrait of the one candidate, as singular as his solidarity towards Cuba. I deeply respect that first attempt at building socialism, thanks to which we were able to continue along the path we had chosen."

And I reiterated in that letter that "I never forget that 'all of the world's glory fits in a kernel of corn."

Therefore, it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer. This I say devoid of all drama.

Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process. Some were very young, almost children, when they joined the fight on the mountains and later they have given glory to the country with their heroic performance and their internationalist missions. They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement. There is also the intermediate generation which learned together with us the basics of the complex and almost unattainable art of organizing and leading a revolution.

The path will always be difficult and require from everyone's intelligent effort. I distrust the seemingly easy path of apologetics or its antithesis the self-flagellation. We should always be prepared for the worst variable. The principle of being as prudent in success as steady in adversity cannot be forgotten. The adversary to be defeated is extremely strong; however, we have been able to keep it at bay for half a century.

This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of 'Reflections by comrade Fidel.' It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful.

That Tuesday there was no fresh international news. The modest message I wrote to the Cuban people on Monday, February 18, was widely and easily disseminated. As from 11 o’clock in the morning I started to receive concrete news. The previous night I had slept like never before. I had a clear conscience and I had promised myself a vacation. The days of tension, awaiting the proximity of February 24, had left me exhausted.



Today I will not say a single word about persons very dear to me in Cuba and in the world who in many different ways expressed their emotions. I also received a great number of opinions collected in the streets through reliable methods, which almost without exception and in a very spontaneous way conveyed the deepest feelings of solidarity. Someday I shall discuss that issue.



Right now I am focusing on the adversary. I enjoyed watching the embarrassment of every United States presidential candidate. One by one they all felt compelled to exact urgent demands from Cuba to avoid the risk of losing a single vote. Anyone could have thought that I was a Pullitzer Prize winner interviewing them on very sensitive political and even personal issues for the CNN from Las Vegas, a place where the logics of the games of chance prevails, and that should be humbly visited by anyone running for President.



Fifty years of blockade seemed too little to the favorites. Change! Change! Change! They all cried in unison.



I agree. Change! But, inside the United States. Cuba changed long ago and will now follow a dialectical path.



We will never go back to the past! Cries our people.


Annexation! Annexation! Annexation! Responds the adversary. That is what it really means when it speaks about change.



José Martí, unveiling the secret of his silent struggle, denounced the voracious and expansionistic empire that his brilliant intelligence had discovered and described more than one century after the enactment of the revolutionary Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies.



The end of a historical period is not the same as the beginning of the end of an unsustainable system.



All of a sudden, the weakened European powers, allied to that system, are exacting the same demands. In their opinion, the time has come to dance to the music of democracy and freedom, which since the times of Torquemada, they never really knew.



The colonization and neo-colonization of entire continents, from which they get energy, raw materials, and cheap labor, are a moral discredit to them.


An illustrious Spanish personality, once an impeccable socialist and minister of Culture, who for some time now and even today has been advocating for the war and the use of weapons, is the synthesis of sheer nonsense. Kosovo and its unilateral declaration of independence are now hunting them as an impertinent nightmare.



In Iraq and Afghanistan, men of flesh and blood wearing the United States and NATO uniforms continue to die. The memories of the USSR, which disintegrated in part because of the interventionist adventure in Afghanistan, are chasing the Europeans like a shadow.



Bush senior endorses McCain as his candidate, while Bush junior declares in some country of Africa –where man originated yesterday and which is a martyr continent today- where no one knows what he was doing, that my message was the beginning of the road towards freedom in Cuba, that is to say, the annexation decreed by his government in a huge and thick text.


The day before, TV networks from all over the world showed a group of state-of-the-art bombers performing spectacular maneuvers, giving full guarantees that any bombs could be launched, that the aircraft that carried them will not be detected by radars, and that this will not be considered a war crime.



A protest raised by some important countries had to do with the imperial idea of testing a new weapon under the pretext of avoiding the possible fall on the territory of a foreign country of a spy satellite, one of the many artifacts that the United States has put into the planet orbit for military purposes.



I had thought not to write a reflection at least in 10 days, but I had no right to remain silent for so long. We need to open ideological fire against them.



I wrote this on Tuesday at 3:35 pm. Yesterday, I reviewed it and I will deliver it today, Thursday, in the afternoon. I have begged that my reflections be published on the second page or any other of our newspapers, never on the front page, and that brief summaries of them should be published in other media in case they are long.



I am now fully devoted to the effort of casting my full-slate vote in support of the Presidency of the National Assembly and the new State Council, as well as on the right way to do it.



I thank all readers for having waited so patiently.



Fidel Castro Ruz

February 21, 2008

6:34 p.m.