Castro insists retirement as leader is not an option

Castro insists retirement as leader is not an option
By Marc Frank in Havana
Published: April 5 2006 03:00
Last updated: April 5 2006 03:00

Fidel Castro has reiterated he has no plans to retire as Cuba's
president after 47 years in power and voiced confidence that younger
leaders coming up through the ranks of the Communist party, military and
government will carry on his legacy.

"In general I feel good. Most of all I feel energetic and enthusiastic
about things," Mr Castro told Ignacio Ramonet, the director of Le Monde
Diplomatique, in an interview published by the Spanish newspaper El País
on Sunday.

Mr Castro, who turns 80 in August, has made a remarkable recovery from a
fall that shattered his left knee and broke his right arm 18 months ago,
though aides are always close by to help when he stands to deliver a
speech or walks on stage.

The revolutionary icon at times rambles a bit, or forgets some minor
details,during his extraordinarily long speeches, but those who have met
him privately in recent months report he is energetic and lucid.

Mr Castro told Mr Ramonet he would stick to his word, given in 2003
uponre-election by the National Assembly to another five-year term as
president, "to serve as long as they wish . . . and I am useful. Not a
minute less, nor a second more".

The publication of extracts from 100 hours of interviews, given from
2003 to 2005 and now to be turned into a book, comes as the US Central
Intelligence Agency reports that Mr Castro has Parkinson's disease which
has US-based exiles excited and voicing their eagerness to return to
help build democracy and capitalism on the Caribbean island.

Mr Castro scoffed at the reports. "Every day they invent something, if
Castro has this or that, which illness or illnesses," he says.

The Bush administration has been voicing its concern that Mr Castro's
younger brother, the defence minister Raul Castro, 74, will soon take over.

"If something happens to me tomorrow the National Assembly will surely
meet and elect him," Mr Castro says, "and so will the political bureau."
But then Mr Castro, for the first time, admits that his brother, who
will be 75 in June and has been at his side since the 1959 revolution,
is also getting on in years.

"But already he is getting near my age and this problem [succession] is
more generational," Mr Castro says, adding later, "now there are new
generations [coming forward] because our generation is already passing."

Most top party officials, military officers and ministers are now
between 40 and 60 years of age, though the few "historicos" left, in
particular the Castro brothers, still clearly set policy.

Western diplomats said they were hardly surprised by Mr Castro's
comments, though Cubans had mixed reactions.

His strongest supporters believe he should remain as long as possible,
especially given continued US hostility, but his detractors insist he
should have stepped down long ago as his antagonism to the US and state
domination of the economy are ruining the country.

The majority of Cubans appear simply anxious about the future, because
at a minimum they believe Mr Castro is intelligent, well-meaning and
patriotic, even if they question his policies.

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