Castro Has Surgery, Cedes Power to Brother

The Cuban leader temporarily relinquished power to his brother Raul because of intestinal surgery. Castro said in a statement he expected to be unable to govern for at least a few weeks.

AP via the N.Y. Times:

Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated U.S. attempts to oust him and survived communism’s demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night because of surgery.

The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to a letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

‘‘The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest,’’ said the letter. Extreme stress ‘‘had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure.’‘
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