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Feb
Fidel Castro Resigns
Cuba’s leader since 1959, Fidel Castro, has announced his retirement.
“I will not aspire to nor accept – I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept – the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief,” read a letter signed by Castro published early Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma.
However, this will most likely leave his brother, Raul, in charge.
The announcement effectively ends the rule of the 81-year-old Castro after almost 50 years, positioning his 76-year-old brother Raul for permanent succession to the presidency. Fidel Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, when he announced that he had undergone intestinal surgery.
Since then, the elder Castro has not been seen in public, appearing only sporadically in official photographs and videotapes and publishing dense essays about mostly international themes as his younger brother has consolidated his rule.
A new National Assembly was elected in January, and will meet for the first time Sunday to pick the governing Council of State, including the presidency that Fidel Castro has held since the assembly’s 1976 creation. Before 1976, Castro was president under a different government structure, and previously served as prime minister.
So, clearly the people of the country have no say in who they desire to be “president.” Remember that today, even when we are not huge fans of our Presidential candidates in the United States, we still have the power to vote and decide who we want to lead our country.
