Fidel Castro Will
Neither Aspire To Nor
Accept Reelection
Havana, Feb 19 (Prensa
Latina) Cuban President
Fidel Castro announced
he will not aspire to
nor accept the position
of President of the
State Council and
Commander in Chief at
the Parliament session
scheduled for February
24th.
“This is not my farewell
to you. My only wish is
to fight as a soldier in
the battle of ideas. I
shall continue to write
under the heading of
‘Reflections by comrade
Fidel.’ It will be just
another weapon you can
count on. Perhaps my
voice will be heard. I
shall be careful,”
stressed the leader of
the Cuban Revolution in
a message released
Tuesday.
Following is he full
text published of
Castro's statement in
the Prensa Latina:
Message from the
Commander in Chief
Dear compatriots:
Last Friday, February
15, I promised you that
in my next reflection I
would deal with an issue
of interest to many
compatriots. Thus, this
now is rather a message.
The moment has come to
nominate and elect the
State Council, its
President, its
Vice-Presidents and
Secretary.
For many years I have
occupied the honorable
position of President.
On February 15, 1976 the
Socialist Constitution
was approved with the
free, direct and secret
vote of over 95% of the
people with the right to
cast a vote. The first
National Assembly was
established on December
2nd that same year; this
elected the State
Council and its
presidency. Before that,
I had been a Prime
Minister for almost 18
years. I always had the
necessary prerogatives
to carry forward the
revolutionary work with
the support of the
overwhelming majority of
the people.
There were those
overseas who, aware of
my critical health
condition, thought that
my provisional
resignation, on July 31,
2006, to the position of
President of the State
Council, which I left to
First Vice-President
Raul Castro Ruz, was
final. But Raul, who is
also minister of the
Armed Forces on account
of his own personal
merits, and the other
comrades of the Party
and State leadership
were unwilling to
consider me out of
public life despite my
unstable health
condition.
It was an uncomfortable
situation for me
vis-à-vis an adversary
which had done
everything possible to
get rid of me, and I
felt reluctant to
comply.
Later, in my necessary
retreat, I was able to
recover the full command
of my mind as well as
the possibility for much
reading and meditation.
I had enough physical
strength to write for
many hours, which I
shared with the
corresponding
rehabilitation and
recovery programs. Basic
common sense indicated
that such activity was
within my reach. On the
other hand, when
referring to my health I
was extremely careful to
avoid raising
expectations since I
felt that an adverse
ending would bring
traumatic news to our
people in the midst of
the battle. Thus, my
first duty was to
prepare our people both
politically and
psychologically for my
absence after so many
years of struggle. I
kept saying that my
recovery “was not
without risks.”
My wishes have always
been to discharge my
duties to my last
breath. That’s all I can
offer.
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.
In short letters
addressed to Randy
Alonso, Director of the
Round Table National TV
Program, --letters which
at my request were made
public-- I discreetly
introduced elements of
this message I am
writing today, when not
even the addressee of
such letters was aware
of my intention. I
trusted Randy, whom I
knew very well from his
days as a student of
Journalism. In those
days I met almost on a
weekly basis with the
main representatives of
the University students
from the provinces at
the library of the large
house in Kohly where
they lived. Today, the
entire country is an
immense University.
Following are some
paragraphs chosen from
the letter addressed to
Randy on December 17,
2007:
“I strongly believe that
the answers to the
current problems facing
Cuban society, which
has, as an average, a
twelfth grade of
education, almost a
million university
graduates, and a real
possibility for all its
citizens to become
educated without their
being in any way
discriminated against,
require more variables
for each concrete
problem than those
contained in a chess
game. We cannot ignore
one single detail; this
is not an easy path to
take, if the
intelligence of a human
being in a revolutionary
society is to prevail
over instinct.
“My elemental duty is
not to cling to
positions, much less to
stand in the way of
younger persons, but
rather to contribute my
own experience and ideas
whose modest value comes
from the exceptional era
that I had the privilege
of living in.
“Like Niemeyer, I
believe that one has to
be consistent right up
to the end.”
Letter from January 8,
2008:
“…I am a firm supporter
of the united vote (a
principle that preserves
the unknown merits),
which allowed us to
avoid the tendency to
copy what came to us
from countries of the
former socialist bloc,
including the portrait
of the one candidate, as
singular as his
solidarity towards Cuba.
I deeply respect that
first attempt at
building socialism,
thanks to which we were
able to continue along
the path we had chosen.”
And I reiterated in that
letter that “…I never
forget that ‘all of the
world’s glory fits in a
kernel of corn.”
Therefore, it would be a
betrayal to my
conscience to accept a
responsibility requiring
more mobility and
dedication than I am
physically able to
offer. This I say devoid
of all drama.
Fortunately, our
Revolution can still
count on cadres from the
old guard and others who
were very young in the
early stages of the
process. Some were very
young, almost children,
when they joined the
fight on the mountains
and later they have
given glory to the
country with their
heroic performance and
their internationalist
missions. They have the
authority and the
experience to guarantee
the replacement. There
is also the intermediate
generation which learned
together with us the
basics of the complex
and almost unattainable
art of organizing and
leading a revolution.
The path will always be
difficult and require
from everyone’s
intelligent effort. I
distrust the seemingly
easy path of apologetics
or its antithesis the
self-flagellation. We
should always be
prepared for the worst
variable. The principle
of being as prudent in
success as steady in
adversity cannot be
forgotten. The adversary
to be defeated is
extremely strong;
however, we have been
able to keep it at bay
for half a century.
This is not my farewell
to you. My only wish is
to fight as a soldier in
the battle of ideas. I
shall continue to write
under the heading of
‘Reflections by comrade
Fidel.’ It will be just
another weapon you can
count on. Perhaps my
voice will be heard. I
shall be careful.
Thanks.
Fidel Castro Ruiz
February 18, 2008
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