Illness forces Castro to quit after half a century in power

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Illness forces Castro to quit after half a century in power

 

 

Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba for almost half a century, stepped down as president yesterday in a move that raised the prospect of the opening-up one of the world's last communist states.

Castro, 81, who has been in worsening health since July 2006, released a letter in the dead of night on the website of the official communist party newspaper Granma that announced his intention to end his long domination. Cubans awoke yesterday to find that the era that began near the start of the cold war was over.

The announcement comes just days before Cuba's national assembly is due to meet to select a head of state and is expected to pave the way for Castro's brother Raúl to officially become the new leader. Raúl Castro, 76, has been the effective leader of Cuba since an acute infection in his brother's colon forced him to temporarily cede power. Raúl is the world's longest serving defence minister and is believed to have a firm grip on the armed forces and security apparatus.

President George Bush, responding to the news while on a tour of Africa, said the move should begin the process of opening-up the country. He said he viewed this as the beginning of democratic transition for the Cuban people.

Castro's departure could allow younger members of the ruling elite to ascend to stronger positions. Fidel Castro has strongly hinted at a need for a generational change and his brother has also indicated that changes to the way the island is governed, especially economically, are needed. Possible eventual successors are the vice-president, Carlos Lage, 56, the foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque, 42, and Ricardo Alarcón, 70, who was Cuba's ambassador to the UN before becoming president of the national assembly. The news broke with the release of a characteristically rambling letter from Castro that was published in several different languages on Granma's website.

"I will not aspire to, neither will I accept - I repeat I will not aspire to, neither will I accept - the position of the president of the council of state," Castro wrote, saying his ill health was denying him the physical ability to fully commit to the job of running the country. Perhaps showing a flash of his trademark humour Castro also quipped: "This I say devoid of all drama."

The move was not unexpected. Castro has not appeared in public since the announcement of his illness. Instead photographs of him have been released, meeting world leaders and wearing a tracksuit rather than his military fatigues.

The new leadership will have to deal with the country's dominant problem for almost 50 years: its isolation. Crippling US trade sanctions are still in place and yesterday the state department said relaxation of those rules would come only after democratic reforms had begun.

For ordinary Cubans the news is likely to be unsettling. Almost two-thirds of Cubans were born after the revolution and have known no other leader.

There was nothing on the streets of L'Habana Vieja, Old Havana, yesterday that obviously betrayed the momentousness of the announcement. Teenagers played baseball in the narrow streets with poles and bottletops, small groups chatted in the dark doorways of crumbling buildings, bags of shopping were hoisted on ropes to the upper floors and tourists strolled by with fat cigars hanging from their mouths.

"Things have to change a bit now, let's see what some new neurons can do," said Jorge, a mathematician-turned-taxi driver who credits the system with his education and his family's good health, but blames it for stumping his aspirations. "Not Raul either, someone else. Someone who can bring some money into Cuba. Everything can be fixed with a little money."

Castro's legacy is a mixed one. His revolution swept to power deposing the ruthless American-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He used his power to bring sweeping social changes and instituted widely admired healthcare and education systems. But he never brought back democracy, and economic mismanagement, coupled with sanctions, has left Cuba desperately poor.

The end of the cold war also saw the disappearance of its Soviet sponsors and since then Cuba has relied heavily on tourism revenues and the hard currency sent back by its exiles.

Yet predictions of the rapid end of the Communist party's hold on the island are likely to be premature. When Castro first announced his illness some observers expected reforms to come quickly. But in the 19 months since then Raúl, and the party, have shown a strong grip on government.

Indeed Castro's letter shows he is still likely to wield influence behind the scenes. 'This is not my farewell to you," he wrote, before adding that he would continue to be "a soldier of ideas" in future missives. "It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard," Castro said.

Life and times

1956 Dec 2 Castro and 82 rebels land on Cuba and are routed by army but flee into mountains to launch guerrilla war. By December 28, after rebel attack led by Che Guevara, Santa Clara falls. Batista troops end resistance

1959 Jan 1 Batista flees Cuba

Jan 8 Castro enters Havana in triumph

1961 Jan 3 After three months of a partial embargo, the US breaks off diplomatic relations

April 16 Castro declares Cuba a socialist state

April 19 Bay of Pigs invasion. CIA-backed exiles defeated

1962 Feb 7 US imposes full trade embargo

October Cuban missile crisis. After 13 day standoff, Russians withdraw their missiles from Cuba

1967 Oct 9 Che Guevara killed by Bolivan troops while trying to emulate the Cuban revolution in South America

1977 Sept 1 Resumption of limited economic ties with the United States

1980 April-Sept Mariel boatlift, in which Cuba allowed the exodus of about 125,000 citizens to the US, many leaving from Mariel, west of Havana

1971 onwards Castro (shown, right, with Daniel Ortega of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in 1985) visits Chile, Panama and Nicaragua to support leftwing regimes

1993 Aug 14 Havana ends the ban on the use of dollars

1926 Aug 13 Fidel Castro Ruz born Biran, eastern Cuba

1953 July 26 Castro leads armed struggle against dictator Fulgencio Batista, but attack on Moncada barracks fails

Sept Castro sentenced to 15 years. Makes "history will absolve me" speech from the dock

1955 May Batista grants amnesty to Castro, who goes to Mexico to plot invasion of Cuba

1994 August Raft Crisis. More than 30,000 Cubans flee island on flimsy boats, many perishing in shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida. Washington and Havana sign migration agreement to stem exodus and allow minimum of 20,000 legal entry visas per year for Cubans. Many still try to sail across illegally

1996 March 12 The Helms-Burton law - allowing the US to penalise foreign companies investing in Cuba - is signed into law by Bill Clinton

1998 January Pope John Paul II visits Cuba and condemns the US embargo, while calling for greater freedom for the island

1999 Jan 1 Castro celebrates 40 years in power

1999-2000 Elián González, left, whose mother perished as they crossed from Cuba to Florida, sparks the biggest crisis in Cuban-US relations for years. Elián was sent to live with his uncle in Miami, but he was eventually returned to the custody of his father in Havana in November 2001

2001 July 27 Castro leads 1.2 million-strong crowd in parade to celebrate the revolution and demonstrate against the US blockade

2003 March 18 Crackdown on dissidents sees 75 people jailed

2006 July 27 Castro's final personal appearance as president

July 31 Raul, Castro's brother temporarily handed power as Fidel recovers from an operation for gastrointestinal bleeding

2006 Sept 1 Castro appears on Cuban TV from his hospital bed

2007 Aug 18 Castro turns 81 and fails to appear in public

2008 Jan 20 Castro re-elected to parliament, opening the possibility that he could remain as president, however, he resigns the office

In quotes

"Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me."
16 October 1953, at his trial for the raid on Moncada barracks

"A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past."
January 1961, Havana, on the second anniversary of the Cuban revolution

"I believe that all of us ought to retire relatively young."
January 1967, interview in Playboy

"I was a man who was lucky enough to have discovered a political theory, a man who was caught up in the whirlpool of Cuba's political crisis long before becoming a fully fledged Communist . . . Discovering Marxism was like finding a map in the forest."
November 18 1971, Chile

"I have a heart of steel."
Reply to reports that he had been diagnosed with a heart condition, June 7 1972

"All criticism is opposition. All opposition is counter-revolutionary."
As quoted in article in the New Yorker from Socialism of Death by John Newhouse, 1992

"The leading symbol of the hagiography of US mercantilism."
Castro on Santa Claus, December 1998

"I have concluded - maybe a little late - that speeches must be short."
August 2000

absolve – rozgrzeszać, oczyszczać

acute - dotkliwy

ascend – wznosić się, wspinać się

conclude – dochodzić do wniosku

coupled with – połączony z, sprzężony z

crackdown – obostrzenia, sankcje

crippling - wyniszczający

custody – opieka rodzicielska

devoid of - pozbawiony

emulate – gorliwie naśladować; rywalizować

exile – banita, wygnaniec

fully fledged – dojrzały, pełnoprawny

gastrointestinal – żołądkowo-jelitowy

grip – chwyt, uścisk

hagiography - hagiografia

hint – sugerować, dawać wskazówki

hoist – podnosić, wciagać

indicate - wskazywać

leftwing - lewicowy

mercantilism - merkantylizm

missile – pocisk, rakieta

momentousness - doniosłość

pave the way (for)- torować drogę (dla)

perish – ginąć, umierać

prediction – przewidywanie, przepowiednia

premature – przedwczesny

quip- żartować, dowcipkować

rambling - chaotyczny

rapid-  nagły, gwałtowny

release – publikować

resistance - opór

resumption – kontynuacja, powtórne podjęcie

ruthless – bezlitosny, bezwzględny

spark - wywoływać

standoff – pat; stan równowagi

step down - ustępować

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