Fidel Castro steps down "temporarily"

[Menydh]

Cuba says Castro's life not in danger

Reuters
August 1, 2006

The communist government told nervous Cubans on Tuesday that Fidel Castro's life was not in danger, after the ailing U.S. foe who has dominated the nation for nearly 50 years said he had stepped down temporarily.

"The Cuban leader will always fight until the last moment. But that last moment is very far away," National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said in the first word from Cuba on Castro's condition since Monday evening's announcement he was handing over power provisionally to his brother.

Monday's news that the 79-year-old Castro was undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding set off street parties in Miami by Cuban exiles who yearn for the demise of the West's only communist government.

The news also prompted speculation that Castro, who took power in 1959, would not return to office. In Washington, the Bush administration, which has tightened the decades-long U.S. embargo with Cuba, dismissed any possibility of a softer stance with new leader Raul Castro.

In Cuba, where Castro's guerrillas once swept down from the Sierra Maestra hills to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictator, word of his illness brought apprehension over the future of the Caribbean island nation of 11 million.

Opinion can be hard to measure in a tightly controlled society. But many Cubans, whether admiring or not of Castro, seemed stunned by the temporary exit from the scene of a figure who has run their lives for decades.

Castro, who last appeared in public giving a July 26 speech, said in a "proclamation" read out by an aide on television that his ill health was caused by overexerting himself during travels last month.

Castro, whose health has been an issue since he fainted during a speech in 2001, gave the reins of the ruling Communist Party, the post of commander in chief of the armed forces and president of the executive council of state to Raul Castro, 75, his constitutional successor.


[source]

[Menydh]

Even Fidel Castro said once that he was a softie if compared to his brother Raúl.

Whatever other considerations, I admire the strength of Fidel Castro in front of the US, and the resistance that Cuba has put to the US during so long years.


P.S. I checked Granma for news on Castro's stepping down of power, but their last national news item there is from July 27. Oh well.. the end of the world can wait.. that's the Caribbean after all..

[Savage]

Fidel Castro are one the greatest living americans. Perhaps the greatest leader of all, the latest 50 years.

And Castro does not die according to local traditions.
And when the time comes, he will be sanctified, and may with good reason be be considered a personification of Cubas guardian angel.

Compared to the " Rom and Coca-cola unculture under Batistas organized crime regime, Castros communism was a medicine that worked well for Cuba. He is also a good example on a practicing nationalist.