Cuba's Fidel Castro: Didn't Expect to Live to 87

[Mika]

Cuba's Fidel Castro: Didn't Expect to Live to 87
[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left: 2em; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.4615em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #999999;"]
Fidel Castro says he didn't expect he'd live long enough to turn 87 this week after grave illness forced him from office in 2006, according to an essay carried by official media Wednesday.

In a long, wide-ranging article taking up three pages of Communist Party newspaper Granma, Castro, whose birthday was Tuesday, wrote about being stricken with a near-fatal intestinal ailment on July 26, 2006.

"As soon as I understood that it would be definitive I did not hesitate to cease my charges as president ... and I proposed that the person designated to exercise that task proceed immediately to take it up," the retired leader said, referring to his successor and younger brother Raul Castro.

"I was far from imagining that my life would be prolonged seven more years," he added.

Castro stepped aside provisionally that year and retired permanently in 2008. He rarely appears in public these days, though photos and video of him are released occasionally through official media.

More ... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cubas-fidel-castro-expect-live-87-19959497

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's amazing he soldiered on through that horrendous illness in 2006.

After all those years of smoking cigars in earlier days, too. Very strong constitution.

Found another current article to add to yours with a photo which I have read was taken April this year, when he attended the dedication of a new school:

Fidel Castro's role in Cuba is chiefly offstage as he turns 87 today
Reuters | Updated: August 13, 2013 08:36 IST



Havana: Fidel Castro turns 87 today, largely out of sight but not out of mind, as Cuba struggles to move on from his half-century rule and as many of his policies are reconsidered under the leadership of his younger brother Raul.

The birthday of one of Latin America's most iconic revolutionary figures has been a low key celebration in recent years. A choral concert in his honor at the Jose Marti national monument in Havana on Monday evening was the only official event planned.

Castro goes about his daily activities out of the public eye, and how much influence the retired commandante still wields is unknown. He emerges every once in a while to reassure his followers that he is very much around, frustrating those who wish he was not.

"No one believes anymore that Fidel has any real influence over day-to-day policy," a western diplomat said, "but that doesn't mean he is never consulted on big questions or that when he comes out it isn't important."

The government has staged just three media events this year for Castro: first, to vote in January for National Assembly deputies and chat with local reporters; then, in February, to attend the new parliament's opening session where his brother's possible successor, 53-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, was named first vice president, and more recently, to inaugurate a school near his home on the outskirts of Havana.

More:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/fidel-castro-s-role-in-cuba-is-chiefly-offstage-as-he-turns-87-today-404975

(He looks tremendous in that photo for an 86 going on 87 year old man.)

Feliz cumpleanos al Comondante.

[Judi Lynn]

2. From Chief of State to Writer, a Transition Without Trauma

August 14, 2013
From Chief of State to Writer, a Transition Without Trauma

Fidel at 87

by NELSON P. VALDES


On August 13th, Fidel Castro became 87 years old. He has been out of power since he got very ill in 2006 and retired in 2008. Seven years have gone by. We were told by the world mass media that Raúl Castro did not have the wherewithal to rule. And yet, there has been no political or social challenge to the successful transition. Indeed, Cuba has been more stable than many countries in Europe. Moreover, the influence and expansion of ties with the world have increased. And Raul Castro might even have more legitimacy than expected.

Contrary to pressumed Fidel is doing fairly well too – considering his age and medical problems. What is remarkable is that a charismatic leader lived long enough and managed to transfer his power/ authority to institutions. This is unheard of, sociologically speaking. Typically, charismatic rulers died and then others had to figure out the new regime. The imagined scenario promoted by the world mass media, US and European think tanks and foreign governments was: quick death, power struggle at the commanding heights of power, civil war, possible US intervention and a return to the ancien regime. None of these happened. The anti-Castro futurologists did not see much of the future while they hammered us with reference to Cuba as a Caribbean Jurassic Park and Fidel as the dinosaur in chief.

How come talking heads, editorial writers and wishful thinkers were so wrong about a post Fidel or a post Castro’s Cuba?

One basic reason is that attention has not been paid to the real developments in the island. Wishful thinking and lies dominated the debate. Second, nor has there been any reference, then or now, to the fact that Cuba has institutions, a history and a political culture. Thirdly, the critical framework that the average Cuban has exhibited was interpreted by outsiders to mean that the “totalitarian system” was in decline and crumbling. It was assumed that open criticisms, by itself, was not allowed and subversive. Yet, Raul Castro often calls upon the people to openly criticize what needs to be changed.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/14/fidel-at-87/

[Socialistlemur]

3. Maybe he will live to 100 to see Cuba turned into a capitalist satrapy

Living to an old age in his case may be quite a bitter end to his life. His brother and Diaz Canel are trying to maintain the dictatorship, media censorship, and the iron fist rule by the upper class oligarchs known as "the communist party elite". I'm not sure if Fidel is senile, the article may have been written by ghost writers. But if his brain still works he must be feeling some bitterness about the failure of the Rube Goldberg monstrosity he tried to create.