Published: Aug 01, 2006 12:00 am
HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his presidential
powers to his brother Raul on Monday night and told Cubans he underwent
surgery.
The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding,
apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and
Cuba, according to the letter read live on television by his secretary,
Carlos Valenciaga.
"The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest," the
letter read, adding that extreme stress "had provoked in me a sharp
intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a
complicated surgical procedure."
Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his
younger brother and successor Raul, the defense minister, but said the
move was of "a provisional character."
The elder Castro asked that celebrations scheduled for his 80th birthday
on Aug. 13 be postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of Cuba's
Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Castro said he would also temporarily relinquish his duties as first
secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raul, who turned 75 in June
and who has been taking on a more public profile in recent weeks.
In power since the triumph of the Cuban revolution on Jan. 1, 1959,
Castro has been the world's longest-ruling head of government. Only
Britain's Queen Elizabeth, crowned in 1952, has been head of state longer.
The "maximum leader's" ironclad rule has ensured Cuba remains among the
world's five remaining communist countries. The others are all in Asia:
China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea.
In Old Havana, waiters at a popular cafe were momentarily stunned as
they watched the news. But they quickly got back to work and put on
brave faces.
"He'll get better, without a doubt," said Agustin Lopez, 40. "There are
really good doctors here, and he's extremely strong."
In the nearby Plaza Vieja, Cuban musicians continued to play for
customers - primarily foreign tourists - sitting at outdoor cafes. Signs
on the plaza's colonial buildings put up during a recent Cuban holiday
said, "Live on Fidel, for 80 more."
"We're really sad, and pretty shocked," said Ines Cesar, a retired
58-year-old metal worker who had gathered with neighbors to discuss the
news. "But everyone's relaxed too: I think he'll be fine."
When asked about how she felt having Raul Castro at the helm of the
nation, Cesar paused and said one word: "normal."
Over nearly five decades, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled
Castro's rule, many of them settling just across the Florida Straits in
Miami.
Castro rose to power after an armed revolution he led drove out
then-President Fulgencio Batista.
The United States was the first country to recognize Castro, but his
radical economic reforms and rapid trials of Batista supporters quickly
unsettled U.S. leaders.
Washington eventually slapped a trade embargo on the island and severed
diplomatic ties. Castro seized American property and businesses and
turned to the Soviet Union for military and economic assistance.
On April 16, 1961, Castro declared his revolution to be socialist. The
following day, he humiliated the United States by capturing more than
1,100 exile soldiers in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The world neared nuclear conflict on Oct. 22, 1962, when President John
F. Kennedy announced there were Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. After a
tense week of diplomacy, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev removed them.
Meanwhile, Cuban revolutionaries opened 10,000 new schools, erased
illiteracy, and built a universal health care system. Castro backed
revolutionary movements in Latin America and Africa.
But former liberties were whittled away as labor unions lost the right
to strike, independent newspapers were shut down and religious
institutions were harassed.
Castro continually resisted U.S. demands for multiparty elections and an
open economy despite American laws tightening the embargo in 1992 and 1996.
He characterized a U.S. plan for American aid in a post-Castro era as a
thinly disguised attempt at regime change and insisted his socialist
system would survive long after his death.
Fidel Castro Ruz was born in eastern Cuba, where his Spanish immigrant
father ran a prosperous plantation. His official birthday is Aug. 13,
1926, although some say he was born a year later.
Talk of Castro's mortality was long taboo on the island, but that ended
June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun. Although
Castro quickly returned to the stage, many Cubans understood for the
first time that their leader would one day die.
Castro shattered a kneecap and broke an arm when he fell after a speech
on Oct. 20, 2004, but typically laughed off rumors about his health,
most recently a 2005 report that he had Parkinson's disease.
"They have tried to kill me off so many times," Castro said in a
November 2005 speech about the Parkinson's report, adding he felt
"better than ever."
But the Cuban president also said he would not insist on remaining in
power if he ever became too sick to lead: "I'll call the (Communist)
Party and tell them I don't feel I'm in condition ... that please,
someone take over the command."
---
Associated Press writer Vanessa Arrington in Havana contributed to this
report
Sun Journal | Connecting you with your Community (1 August 2009)
http://www.sunjournal.com/node/49384
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