Cuban President Fidel Castro quipped that comments by US President George W. Bush on Thursday helped him finally figure out how he escaped so many assassination attempts: through the grace of God.
"Now I understand why I survived Bush's plans and those of presidents who ordered my assassination," Castro joked in a short essay distributed via e-mail to international media in Havana.
"The good Lord protected me," Castro said sarcastically, echoing Bush's own words on the 80-year-old leader's eventual demise.
Bush prediction
"One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away," Bush said earlier on Thursday, in response to questions following a speech at the US Naval War College in Rhode Island.
When the audience applauded, Bush said, "No, no, no," apparently to indicate that his statement was not a wish for Castro's death.
Bush told the group that his administration would "continue to press for freedom on the island of Cuba."
Castro has long been a thorn in the side of US presidents, defying them and outlasting them in office. Since coming to power in a 1959 revolution, the Cuban leader has seen 10 US presidents occupy the White House.
Castro, who has long denounced US leaders for wanting him dead, accused Bush of "authorizing and ordering" an attempt on his life, although he provided no evidence to back up the claim.
Divine intervention
Castro's citing divine intervention on his behalf was most likely just a rhetorical device. Although the communist was educated at Roman Catholic schools in his youth, unlike Bush, he rarely mentions God or religious matters.
Cuba has maintained diplomatic relations with the Vatican since the revolution that came to power in 1959.
But the government was officially atheist for several decades until the early 1990s, when the Constitution was changed and believers for the first time were allowed to join the Communist Party.
Bush's comments and Castro's response come just one day after newly declassified papers were released showing that the CIA recruited a former FBI agent to approach two of the US' most-wanted mobsters and gave them poisonous pills meant for Castro during his first year in power.
Contained among hundreds of pages of CIA internal reports collectively known as "the family jewels," the official confirmation of the 1960 plot against Castro was welcomed by communist authorities as more proof of their long-standing claims that the US wants Castro dead.
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