Fidel Castro: "I'm too ill for public life"

[Mr. Authority]

Castro: I'm too ill for public life
Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, Brazil's president, left, during a meeting in Havana with Castro [EPA]
Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader, has said he is still not well enough to return to public life and campaign in the country's upcoming parliamentary elections.

Castro said in a letter published in several state-owned Cuban newspapers that he was "not physically able" to perform his public duties but would instead continue to write.

Castro, 81, underwent stomach surgery in July 2006, handing over power temporarily to his brother, Raul.

He has not been seen in public since, although he has appeared on television and writes in state newspapers.

Castro must be re-elected to Cuba's national assembly in order to continue as head of the council of state, Cuba's main governing body.


The parliamentary elections are due to be held on January 20.

'Lucid' leader

Castro's letter comes a day after he met Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, the Brazilian president, who said that he found the Cuban leader to be in good health and "as lucid as he as ever been".

"I think Fidel is ready to take over his historic political role in this globalised world, in humanity," Silva said after leaving Cuba late on Tuesday.

Castro suggested in a letter last month he would not cling to power, nor oppose a younger generation of Cuban leaders.

However he has not indicated when, or if, he will step aside permanently.

Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, remains South America's only communist leader.

A long-term foe of the United States, which has imposed a crippling economic and political embargo on the country, he has survived several attempts on his life and outlasted nine US presidents.

He has ruled Cuba for so long that many of his fellow Cuban have known no other leader.

Al Jazeera English - News - Castro: I'm Too Ill For Public Life

[msdebagain]

-------dead Yet????????????

[MissDecember]

^Perfect.

[The Lidless Eye]

Please God, let them keep Communism alive in Cuba. I really hope that the interfering powers of the capitalist world can be thwarted without a popular figurehead...Sadly I can already foresee the manipulation of the forthcoming election..
Strange that al-Jazeera have such a negative slant on Cuba....I wonder why?

[MissDecember]

[Grimmlok]

aww the great thing about cuba is that i can go on vacation and not be annoyed by obnoxious americans!

VIVA CASTRO!

[curlysem]

i thought this man was dead already..........