[NYTr] On Cuba's "Roundtable" a Message from Fidel

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[A reference by Fidel to possibly retiring and making room for younger
people -- the last paragraph of Fidel's message -- is the only part of
Fidel's commenting on the Bali Climate Change meetings that the
mainstream press seem able to report on.  The Cuban media have not yet
released the full text of the letter in English. -NY Transfer]


BBC - Dec 17, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7149170.stm

Fidel Castro hints at retirement

Cuba's ailing communist leader, Fidel Castro, has said he has a duty
not to hold on to power or obstruct the rise of younger people.

Correspondents say the letter read on state TV is the first suggestion
that the 81-year-old president may give up his position in Cuba's
leadership.

Last year he handed over power to his brother Raul on a temporary basis.

Since then, he has not made a public appearance - although the
government has released pictures of Mr Castro.

In the letter released on Monday, he said his duty was not to cling to
office but "to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises
from the exceptional era in which I lived".

The message was delivered during Cuba's main nightly current affairs
programme, Mesa Redonda (The Round Table).

Parliamentary seat

The BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says this is not a formal letter of
resignation, and there is no indication about how or when the Cuban
leader might step down.

The mention of younger leaders suggests that younger brother Raul - who
is 76 - may not automatically succeed the president, our correspondent
says.

Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba since leading the 1959 revolution.

Earlier this month he was nominated as a candidate for a seat in Cuba's
National Assembly - a move seen as an indication that he might still
hope for a return to power.

Mr Castro must be re-elected to the assembly if he is to remain
president of the Council of State.

Nationwide elections will be held on 20 January.

The newly elected parliament will then choose the Council of State,
which President Fidel Castro has headed since the early 1960s.

Editorials

Mr Castro stepped aside after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery
in July 2006.

Since then he has made his presence felt through regular newspaper
editorials.

In Monday's message, Mr Castro paid tribute to the Brazilian architect
Oscar Niemeyer, who turned 100 on Saturday.

"I think like Niemeyer that you have to be of consequence up to the
end," he wrote.

The comments came in the final paragraph of a letter dealing with this
month's climate change conference in Bali. 

                                  ***


AP via Google - Dec 17, 2007
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jYZ_bYLit90ntF-asFgqp2Q5XEigD8TJJ17G1

Castro: Won't Cling to Power Forever

By ANITA SNOW

HAVANA (AP) — Ailing leader Fidel Castro said in a letter read on state
television Monday that he does not intend to cling to power forever or
stand in the way of a younger generation, but invoked the example of a
renowned Brazilian architect who is still working at 100.

"My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even less to
obstruct the path of younger people, but to share experiences and ideas
whose modest worth comes from the exceptional era in which I lived,"
Castro wrote in the final paragraph of a lengthy letter discussing the
Bali summit on global warming.

Castro's thoughts about power and making way for younger leaders were
similar to past comments, including those before he fell ill.

The 81-year-old Castro has not said when — or even if — he will
permanently step aside after temporarily ceding his powers to his
younger brother Raul 16 months ago. He has not been seen in public
since he made that announcement in July 2006 after undergoing emergency
intestinal surgery.

But officially Castro remains the president of Cuba's Council of State,
making him the country's head of government. Several times a week he
pens essays, many of them on international issues that are carried on
state media.

"I think like (Oscar) Niemeyer that you have to be of consequence up to
the end," Castro wrote in Monday's essay, referring to the Brazilian
architect who was honored around the world as he turned 100 on Saturday.

Niemeyer helped design the U.N. headquarters and the main buildings of
Brazil's capital, winning in 1988 the Pritzker Architecture Prize —
dubbed the Nobel of architecture.

In an essay over the weekend, Castro paid homage to Niemeyer, a
lifelong communist who was exiled for several years during Brazil's
1964-85 military dictatorship.

Despite his physical absence from public life, Castro currently is a
candidate for re-election as a deputy to the National Assembly, or
parliament, during Jan. 20 national elections.

Within weeks after that balloting, the newly formed parliament is
expected to select a new Council of State and its president, but there
has been no official word on Castro's role.

Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959, Castro has held the council
presidency since its 1976 creation.

When the parliament re-elected Castro to his sixth term as Council of
State president in March 2003, Castro said he would stay power only as
long as he felt he was contributing.

"I promise that I will be with you, if you so wish, for as long as I
feel that I can be useful — and if it is not decided by nature before —
not a minute less and not a second more," he said at the time. "Now I
understand that it was not my destiny to rest at the end of my life."

Copyright © 2007 Associated Press

                                      ***

Reuters - Dec 17, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSKUA80459620071218

Fidel Castro hints he will not cling to power

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been
seen in public for 16 months, suggested on Monday he might give up his
formal leadership posts -- the first time he has spoken of his possible
retirement since he fell ill.

"My elemental duty is not to hold on to positions and less to obstruct
the path of younger people," the 81-year-old Castro said in a letter
read on Cuban state television.

Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, handed over temporarily to
his brother Raul in July 2006 after undergoing stomach surgery for an
undisclosed illness.

Cuba's National Assembly could formalize Castro's retirement as head of
state when it approves the members of the executive Council of State at
its new session in March.

Castro, the last of the major players of the Cold War still alive, said
his duty is "to contribute experience and ideas whose modest value comes
from the exceptional times that I have lived through."

His comments at the end of the letter read out on a daily current
affairs program on television suggested Castro would not resume office
but instead continue in the role of elder statesman advising the
country's government on key issues.

Castro holds the posts of president of the Council of State and Council
of Ministers, and first secretary of the ruling Communist Party.

Since March this year, Castro has remained present in Cuban political
life by writing dozens of newspaper columns denouncing his ideological
nemesis, the U.S. government, for the war in Iraq and its policies on
climate change and the use of food crops as biofuels.

But he had not mentioned his future role until now.

Senior government officials, who no longer say that Castro is recovering
and will return to office, insist that he is consulted on major policy
decisions.

His illness last year sparked speculation about the end of one-party
Communist rule in Cuba. But most observers agree that a stable transfer
of power has occurred to Defense Minister Raul Castro as acting
president.

The younger Castro, 76, who is considered to be a more practical
administrator, has encouraged debate on the country's main economic
problems and promised "structural changes" in agriculture to ensure
Cubans have enough food.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Sandra Maler)

) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.