Retirement after 49 years of ruling

From Castro to Castro

"To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief" - Fidel Castro


By GABRIELA ZAGO
from Pelotas, BRAZIL


All the world's attention were turned to Cuba when, on February 19th, five days before the end of his term, Fidel Castro, who had been governing the socialist Central America country for 49 years, announced that he wouldn't try reelection any more. In his own words:

"To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief".

The announcement was made in Fidel Castro's column on the Granma newspaper, "Reflections by the Commander in Chief". Granma is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, PCC (the only political party in the country, which makes it a kind of an official press for governement affairs in Cuba). In the message, entitled "Message from the Commander in Chief", he also said he would, from that day on, change the title of his column from "Reflections by the Commander in Chief" to "Reflections by comrade Fidel" (it actually ended up becoming "Reflections of Fidel Castro").

Reasons alleged were not only political. Health problems were taken into account for his decision of retiring:

"it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer. This I say devoid of all drama"

Cuba is an archipelago located in Central America, in the Carribean Sea. It is one of the last socialist countries in the world, still an heritage from the marxism and leninism from URSS. Fidel Castro was governing Cuba since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. His retirement was in benefice of his younger brother, Raúl Castro, who ended up being, in February 24th, five days after Fidel Castro retirement's announcement, selected by Cuba's National Assembly to succeed his brother. Raúl has barely assumed the position and has already proposed a few changes in the strict laws of the country. But he intends to continue with a socialist government.

Raúl Castro is very familiar with the idea of governing Cuba. Fidel had some serious health problems, and ended up being forced to be away from his activites since July 2006, for recovery. Since then, his brother, Raúl, was in charge of the country. Now he's officially president - but he primissed he will keep on asking his older brother for advice on important political issues. There is - the (first) name of the president has changed. But everything will remain somewhat the same in Cuba.


(Published: 09.03.2008.)

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