| Castro stepping down as Cuba's leader |
| Agencies / Havana February 19, 2008 |
| Fidel Castro, who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States from a guerrilla uprising and defied attempts to oust him by 10 US Presidents, retired on Tuesday after almost half a century at Cuba's helm, according to a report by Reuters. Castro, whose cigar-smoking guerrillas ousted US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, has not appeared in public for 19 months since an emergency intestinal surgery forced him to hand over power to brother Raul Castro on July 31, 2006. Castro, 81, said he would not return to lead his country - closing one chapter of the 20th century, the report said. Castro, in a statement published on the website of Granma, the official organ of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, said: "To my cherished compatriots, I did the immense honour of electing in recent days as a member of Parliament, where he must be taken significant agreements for the fate of our revolution, I can inform you that aspirar |
