In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Links: Castro steps down
Reaction: ‘Cuba Should See Start of “Democratic Transition”’
Background: 19 months of ill health
Opinion & Analysis: Who makes the next move?
Key Players: Fidel and Raul Castro
Historical Context: The Cuban Revolution
Reference: Cuba
Related Topics: ‘Reflections by Comrade Fidel’
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Fidel Castro Ends 49 Years in Power
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Illness forced Cuban President Fidel Castro into semi-retirement 19 months ago. He declared Tuesday he will not seek another presidential term.
30-Second Summary
Fidel Castro announced his departure from power in his regular column in Cuba’s official Communist Party newspaper Granma.
At 81, Castro is the longest surviving Cold War-era world leader. Two-thirds of Cubans have known no other president.
The news of his retirement has long been expected. Castro retreated from public life when he was taken ill a few hours after the Revolution Day celebrations on July 26, 2006.
Fidel’s brother and designated successor Raul became acting president on July 31, 2006, when Castro had to undergo surgery to stop intestinal bleeding. Castro has been through at least three operations, one of which apparently did not go well.
The announcement comes ahead of the National Assembly meeting on Feb. 24, which will choose a new head of state.
Blogger Edward Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters expressed the skepticism of many in writing that real change in Cuba was still a long way off.
“No one in the Cuban government will cross the Castros as long as Fidel lives, retired or not. Therefore, the government direction and policy won't change a bit, and the U.S. will face the same issues it always has with Fidel's rule,” wrote Morrissey.
However, others in America argue that the U.S. government has failed to capitalize on the new political climate in Havana.
Last week, the think tank Foreign Policy in Focus wrote, “The immediate post-Fidel moment has, for practical purposes, nearly come and gone, and the U.S. government remains as committed to its archaic and counterproductive Cuba policy as ever.”
At 81, Castro is the longest surviving Cold War-era world leader. Two-thirds of Cubans have known no other president.
The news of his retirement has long been expected. Castro retreated from public life when he was taken ill a few hours after the Revolution Day celebrations on July 26, 2006.
Fidel’s brother and designated successor Raul became acting president on July 31, 2006, when Castro had to undergo surgery to stop intestinal bleeding. Castro has been through at least three operations, one of which apparently did not go well.
The announcement comes ahead of the National Assembly meeting on Feb. 24, which will choose a new head of state.
Blogger Edward Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters expressed the skepticism of many in writing that real change in Cuba was still a long way off.
“No one in the Cuban government will cross the Castros as long as Fidel lives, retired or not. Therefore, the government direction and policy won't change a bit, and the U.S. will face the same issues it always has with Fidel's rule,” wrote Morrissey.
However, others in America argue that the U.S. government has failed to capitalize on the new political climate in Havana.
Last week, the think tank Foreign Policy in Focus wrote, “The immediate post-Fidel moment has, for practical purposes, nearly come and gone, and the U.S. government remains as committed to its archaic and counterproductive Cuba policy as ever.”
Headline Links: Castro steps down
The figure most likely to succeed Castro at the National Assembly on Sunday is his 76-year-old brother Raul. Reuters concludes that Fidel Castro’s “retirement draws the curtain on a political career that spanned the Cold War and survived U.S. enmity, assassination plots by the CIA and the demise of Soviet bloc communism.”
Source: Reuters
According to The Miami Herald, Vice President Carlos Lage, 54, has a chance of succeeding Castro, though Raul is still his most probable replacement. On the subject of Castro’s iconic statues, the Herald writes, “While Cubans are fed up with shortages and low salaries, many still admire and respect him as the charismatic chief who defied the United States and kept Cuba afloat despite the post-Soviet economic collapse.”
Source: Miami Herald
Castro published news of his resignation in Cuban newspaper Granma under the headline “Message from the Commander in Chief.” He wrote, “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.”
Source: Granma
Reaction: ‘Cuba Should See Start of “Democratic Transition”’
Speaking in Rwanda, President George Bush said, "The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy and eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections."
Source: CNN
Background: 19 months of ill health
Castro fell ill a few hours after the Revolution Day celebrations on July 26, 2006. A year later, he had still not returned to public life and it became increasingly unlikely that he would emerge from semi-retirement. FindingDulcinea reported on Cuba’s octogenarian leader in July 2007.
Source: findingDulcinea
President Bush anticipated Castro’s final departure from power in a speech given in October 2007 in which he outlined incentives for democratic and economic reform.
Source: findingDulcinea
Opinion & Analysis: Who makes the next move?
No real change expected soon
Edward Morrissey of the Captain’s Quarters blog gives his take on Castro’s departure: “No one in the Cuban government will cross the Castros as long as Fidel lives, retired or not. Therefore, the government direction and policy won't change a bit, and the U.S. will face the same issues it always has with Fidel's rule. Cuba will simply be more of the same.”
Source: Captain’s Quarters
Syndicated conservative columnist Michelle Malkin responds to the news from Cuba by posting a photo of a “Zombie Castro” doll and writes that, on the issue of Castro’s resignation, “Reuters cloaks its sympathy in journalistic neutrality.”
Source: Michelle Malkin
U.S. policy needs to adapt
“Which of the presidential candidates is prepared to finally break US-Cuba relations out of the anachronistic Cold War cocoon they have been frozen in and initiate a new course that benefits American interests?” writes Steve Clemons for The Huffington Post. Clemons offers a brief summary of candidate position vis-à-vis Cuba, and also relates an observation of Castro’s that the “unbeatable” presidential ticket would have on it both Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama.
Source: The Huffington Post
Think tank Foreign Policy in Focus decried “Washington’s stubbornness” in refusing to engage with the Cuban government since Castro retreated onto the sidelines in 2006. In an article published on Feb. 14, FPIF writes, “The immediate post-Fidel moment has, for practical purposes, nearly come and gone, and the U.S. government remains as committed to its archaic and counterproductive Cuba policy as ever.”
Source: Foreign Policy in Focus
Key Players: Fidel and Raul Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro has outlasted nine U.S. presidents, as profiled by the BBC. He came to power in 1959, and two-thirds of Cubans have known no other leader.
Source: The BBC
On July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother Raul while he recuperated from intestinal surgery. A year later, Fidel’s future as Cuba’s autocratic leader remains in question.
Source: The Washington Post
Raul Castro
Fidel Castro’s designated successor is his brother, Raul, a man who converted to communism earlier than Fidel and who has often been thought to be more extreme in his political convictions. According to the BBC profile, however, other students of Cuban politics surmise that Raul might facilitate a transition to a more market-orientated form of communism.
Source: The BBC
Author of a joint biography of the Castro brothers, Brian Latell, writes in August ’06 that should Raul take over from his brother, there will be no rapid transition to democracy. “Raul is more contradictory and emotionally complex than Fidel,” says Latell, “making him less predictable than the older brother the world has come to know so well.”
Source: The Washington Post
Historical Context: The Cuban Revolution
On Jan. 1, 1959, Fidel Castro’s guerrillas drove out Cuba's President Fulgencio Batista. Castro enjoyed the longest reign of any Cold War leader. Today, a two-thirds majority of Cubans have known no other head of state. FindingDulcinea looks back on the day Castro won the revolutionary war.
Source: findingDulcinea
Reference: Cuba
A concise BBC overview of Cuba looks at how this nation of 11.3 million survived the loss of its major sponsor in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Restrictions on trade were loosened, but those reforms have recently been rolled back, and Fidel Castro has denounced the “new rich.” Cuba has also forged closer relations with Venezuela and China, but the money that Cuban exiles send to the old country remains vital to the economy.
Source: The BBC
Related Topics: ‘Reflections by Comrade Fidel’
Castro said he would continue to write his column “Reflections by Comrade Fidel,” which appears in Cuban newspaper Granma. “It will be just another weapon you can count on,” wrote Castro in his letter of resignation. The “Reflections” column prior to his resignation considers the United States’ debt crisis, and consists primarily of quotes from U.S. academic Chalmers Johnson. At the end of the article, Castro wrote that his next reflection would deal with an issue of interest to many of his compatriots, a hint at his coming resignation.
Source: Granma Internacional
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