In his first comments since announcing he would step down as Cuban president after almost 50 years, Fidel Castro lashed out on Friday at US presidential hopefuls' calls for change in Cuba, saying the only change needed was in the US.
In his column "Reflections of Comrade Fidel" in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the ailing Castro, 81, zeroed in on the international reaction, particularly by his US "adversary," to his announcement on Tuesday of his official departure from Cuba's helm.
Castro was sidelined 19 months ago after major intestinal surgery and handed power temporarily to his brother, interim president Raul Castro, 76.
PHOTO: AFP
US President George W. Bush "said my message was the beginning of the road to freedom in Cuba, in other words, to annexation" by the US, Castro wrote.
The US occupied Cuba in the early 20th century and refuses to abandon its controversial naval base at Guantanamo, on Cuba's southeastern tip. That gives Havana plenty of political currency with which to warn almost daily that a US occupation or annexation effort could come at any time.
Fidel Castro said he had been watching on TV "the embarrassing situation of all the US presidential candidates" whom he said were "forced, one by one, to make their immediate demands of Cuba, so that they would not risk losing a single voter."
"Half a century of economic embargo seemed like not much to these favorites. Change, Change, Change!" they shouted in a chorus. "Well I agree, but in the United States," Castro said.
"The end of one era is not the same thing as the beginning of an unsustainable system," Castro said.
"Cuba changed some time ago and will continue on its dialectical path," said Castro, who leaves the presidency of the Americas' only one-party communist state.
Castro however has not left the party leadership.
In Austin, Texas, late on Thursday, Democratic hopeful Barack Obama said on Thursday that as president, he would be prepared to meet without preconditions with Cuba's next leader, during a debate with White House rival Hillary Clinton.
"I recall what John F. Kennedy said: We should never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate. But this opportunity that Fidel Castro has finally stepped down I think is one that we should take advantage of," Obama said.
"If we think that meeting with the president is a privilege that has to be earned, I think that re-enforces the sense that we stand above the rest of the world at this point in time," Obama said.
The US and Cuba do not have full diplomatic relations.
Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called on Cuba's Catholic Church to work for "reconciliation" in the Caribbean country, in a message delivered by his visiting right-hand man Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Cuban dissidents called on Bertone to urge Fidel Castro's successor to release the regime's political prisoners.
The first hint of Cuba's future direction will come today, when the National Assembly officially selects Castro's successor as president.
The assembly is widely expected to confirm Raul Castro as the new president.
Yet the communist legislature also choose to bring a younger generation to power, however, with Vice President Carlos Lage, 56, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, 42, mentioned as possible heads of state.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS