Castro Retires

Fidel Castro announced on Tuesday that he “neither will aspire to nor will I accept the position of president of the Council of State and commander in chief.” He had stayed in firm control of Cuba for nearly 50 years despite all the best efforts of a superpower some 90 miles away. In the end, he was forced from office not by coup or assassination, but trouble with his intestine.

BBC:

Cuba’s ailing leader, Fidel Castro has announced he will not return to the presidency in a letter published by official Communist Party paper, Granma.

“I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the Council of state and commander in chief,” he wrote in the letter.

Mr Castro handed over power temporarily to his brother, Raul, in July 2006 when he underwent intestinal surgery.

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AP photo / Javier Galeano

Castro outlasted no fewer than nine American presidents after taking power in 1959.