Mr Castro, 81, who has not been seen in public since emergency intestinal surgery 19 months ago, signalled the end of an era when he issued a statement saying he had no desire to continue as President or commander-in-chief.
"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament," he wrote in the online version of the official daily Granma.
An ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when the new parliament meets Sunday.
Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro has said he will not accept another term as president, ending 49 years in power.
"I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," he told the newspaper, Granma.
They all got the story wrong. The New York Times got the story right.
Fidel Castro stepped down Tuesday morning as the president of Cuba after a long illness, ending one of the longest tenures as one of the most all-powerful communist heads of state in the world, according to Granma, the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party.
Castro has not been seen in public in months. We do not even know if Castro is alive, nor do we know who wrote the letter. All we know is the official party line.Posted by sjostrom on February 19, 2008 06:56 AM
