| | |  Editorials | Issues | January 2009 
Castro Says He Probably Won't Be Around in 4 years
 Niko Price - Associated Press
go to original
| | In this picture released Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 by Argentina's Press Offices, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, posses with Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, during a meeting in Havana, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009. Castro said Thursday he doubts he'll make it to the end of Barack Obama's four-year term and instructed Cuban officials to start making their decisions without taking him into account. (AP/Argentina's Presidency) | |
Havana — A new photograph released Friday shows Fidel Castro looking less gaunt than in his last image two months ago, but the ailing Cuban leader said he doubts he'll make it to the end of Barack Obama's four-year term.
The photograph shows Castro standing in a blue track suit and holding the arm of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez during a visit Wednesday. The time gap since his last photo had fueled rumors that Castro's condition had worsened.
Castro, 82, hasn't been seen in public since undergoing abdominal surgery in July 2006, and he formally turned over the presidency to his brother Raul last year. On Thursday night, he instructed Cuban officials to start making decisions without taking him into account.
In a column titled "Reflections of Comrade Fidel," he suggested his days are numbered, saying Cuban officials "shouldn't feel bound by my occasional 'Reflections,' my state of health or my death."
"I have had the rare privilege of observing events over such a long time. I receive information and meditate calmly on those events," he wrote. "I expect I won't enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama's first presidential term has ended."
He didn't elaborate, but the lines had the ring of a farewell, and Castro suggested he was on his way out.
"I have reduced the 'Reflections' as I had planned this year, so I won't interfere or get in the way of the (Communist) Party or government comrades in the constant decisions they must make," he wrote.
Despite stepping down from the presidency after nearly a half-century as Cuba's supreme leader, Castro's periodic essays have continued to carry weight.
They are diligently read in full at the top of midday and nightly radio and television newscasts before any other national or international story. At times, they have even appeared to contradict the words of his brother, the president, prompting speculation over who is really in charge.
Thursday's essay came out on a government Web site shortly before the nightly news and it was published in the state press on Friday.
The bulk of the column was devoted to praising Obama, the 11th U.S. president since the Cuban revolution, in part for his decision to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. Castro recalled his thoughts Tuesday as he watched Obama assume the "leadership of the empire."
"The intelligent and noble face of the first black president of the United States ... had transformed itself under the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King into a living symbol of the American dream," he wrote.
Castro praised Obama as honest, writing: "No one could doubt the sincerity of his words when he affirms that he will convert his country into a model of freedom, respect for human rights in the world and the independence of other nations."
However, Castro suggested Obama would succumb to threats greater than his own qualities: "What will he do soon, when the immense power that he has taken in his hands is absolutely useless to overcome the unsolvable, antagonistic contradictions of the (American) system?"
Obama has said he will not end the U.S. embargo on Cuba without democratic reforms on the island, but will ease limits on Cuban-Americans' visits there and on the money they send home to relatives. He has also offered to negotiate personally with Raul Castro.
The column was Castro's second in as many days. Before that, Castro hadn't been heard from in more than a month, fueling rumors that he had suffered a stroke or lapsed into a coma. Those rumors ended when he met with Fernandez.
Raul Castro, 77, said Wednesday that his older brother spends his days "thinking a lot, reading a lot, advising me, helping me."
Text of Fidel Castro's Online Essay
Associated Press
go to original
The full text of Fidel Castro's online essay, released Thursday evening:
Reflections of Comrade Fidel: The Eleventh President of the United States
Last Tuesday, the 20th of January of 2009, Barack Obama assumed the leadership of the empire as the 11th president of the United States since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959.
No one can doubt the sincerity of his words when he affirms that he will convert his country into a model of freedom, respect for human rights in the world and the independence of other nations. This, of course, offends hardly anyone except for the misanthropes in the corners of the planet. He already conveniently said that the jail and the tortures at the illegal base at Guantanamo cease immediately, which begins to sow doubts among those who worship terror as an unrenounceable instrument of their country's foreign policy.
The intelligent and noble face of the first black president of the United States since its founding two and one-third centuries ago as an independent republic had transformed itself under the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King into a living symbol of the American dream.
However, despite all of the tests passed, Obama has not passed the biggest one of all: What will he do soon, when the immense power that he has taken in his hands is absolutely useless to overcome the unsolvable, antagonistic contradictions of the system?
I have reduced the Reflections as I had planned this year, so as not to interfere or get in the way of the (Communist) Party or government comrades in the constant decisions they must make, facing difficult objectives caused by the global economic crisis. I am well, but I insist that none of them should feel bound by my occasional Reflections, my state of health or my death.
I read over the speeches and materials I have put together over more than half a century.
I have had the rare privilege to observe events over such a long time. I receive information and meditate calmly about those events. I expect I won't enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama's first presidential term has ended.
Fidel Castro Ruz (Jan. 22, 2009) |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us