HAVANA – The ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro (82) has said he doubts he will live to see the end of Barack Obama’s four-year US presidential term and has instructed officials to start making decisions without him.
In an online column called Reflections of Comrade Fidel, Castro suggested his days were 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. I expect I won’t enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama’s first presidential term has ended.”
He did not 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.”
Castro stepped down in July 2006 to undergo emergency surgery and has not been seen in public since. He turned over the presidency to his younger brother Raúl in February after nearly a half-century as Cuba’s supreme leader, but his periodic essays have continued to carry weight.
They are read diligently 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. Yesterday’s essay came out on a government website shortly before the nightly news. Newscasters did not mention it, instead reading a column Castro had released on Wednesday.
The bulk of yesterday’s column was devoted to praising Mr Obama, the 11th US president since the Cuban revolution, in part for his decision to close the US prison at Guantánamo Bay.
Castro recalled his thoughts on Tuesday as he watched Mr Obama assume the “leadership of the empire”. He praised Mr 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.” – (AP)