Acting leader Raul Castro sat next
to his brother's empty seat
Posted on 12/30/2007 9:06:31 AM PST by yankeedame
Last Updated: Friday, 28 December 2007, 23:14 GMT
Acting leader Raul Castro sat next
to his brother's empty seat
Cuba's ailing President, Fidel Castro, has for the second time this month alluded publicly to the possibility of retiring from office. In a letter read out to Cuba's National Assembly, he said in the past he had been a person who "clung" to power, but that life had changed his perspective.
Mr Castro also urged people to support his brother, acting leader Raul Castro.
Last week, the 81-year-old communist leader wrote that he had a duty not to obstruct the rise of younger people.
"I am not a person who clings to power - I could add that I was once, for the excesses of youth and lack of conscience," --Fidel Castro
"My basic duty is not to cling to office, and even less to obstruct the path of younger people, but to pass on the experiences and ideas whose modest worth stems from the exceptional era in which I have lived," last Tuesday's message said.
Mr Castro has ruled Cuba since leading a communist revolution in 1959.
He handed temporary power to his 76-year-old brother in July 2006 after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery, and has not been seen in public since.
'Continue marching'
Cuba's acting leader, Raul Castro, sat next to the empty chair of his ailing brother at the final session of the National Assembly before next year's parliamentary election.
In a letter read out before the day's business got underway, Fidel Castro said that in the past he had been a "utopian socialist".
It was a phase, he said, when he believed he knew what we had to do and wanted the power to do it.
FIDEL CASTRO (Picture dated:13 Aug 2006)
"What changed me? Life itself, through the deepening of the thoughts of [Cuban independence leader Jose] Marti and the classics of Socialism," he said.
Mr Castro also urged people to support his brother, saying he had read in advance a speech Raul made earlier this week in which he said Cuba needed to become more democratic, at least by allowing more open debate about economic and social issues.
"It is necessary to continue marching without stopping for even a minute. I will raise my hand next to yours to support him," he added in the letter dated 27 December.
The BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says that although the remarks were the first time that Mr Castro has publicly backed his brother's attempts at reforms, there is no talk of any political changes in the one-party state.
Mr Castro's two messages come before elections on 20 January to elect the National Assembly, which then selects the Council of State, which he has headed since 1976.
I wonder if he isn’t attempting to bait dissenters out into the open.
Has Castro made any public appearance or are letters read by his brother all they are getting?
The statements don’t sound like Castro. Perhaps he is already dead.
What a waste to give him bottled water if he isn't there. And it's probably evil capitalist bottled water that causes global warming.
That’s what I think. When was the last time he was seen in public?
It’s more likely that his brother is writing the letters, preparing people for the unveiling that the former Castro has “just now passed on.”
He’s likely already dead.
The water bottle for the invisible man is a nice touch.
Castro's just as bad as Garth Brooks.
So retire, already!
JUST DIE ALREADY!!!
So die already...despicable old goat.
if not dead, so greatly debilitated by his multiple surgeries that he is physcially broken and unable to do much of anything but die slowly. Hard to believe even a man on his deathbed makes some of the about-faces he does in this alleged letter from him.
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