FIDEL RESIGNS
Message from the Commander in Chief
Dear
compatriots:
Last
Friday, February 15, I promised you that in my next reflection I
would deal with an issue of interest to many compatriots. Thus, this
now is rather a message.
The moment has come to nominate and
elect the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents and
Secretary.
For many years I have occupied the honorable
position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist
Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of
over 95% of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first
National Assembly was established on
December 2nd that same year;
this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had
been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary
prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support
of the overwhelming majority of the people.
There
were those overseas who, aware of my critical health condition,
thought that my provisional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the
position of President of the State Council, which I left to First
Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final.
Message from the Commander in Chief
Dear
compatriots:
Last
Friday, February 15, I promised you that in my next reflection I
would deal with an issue of interest to many compatriots. Thus, this
now is rather a message.
The moment has come to nominate and
elect the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents and
Secretary.
For many years I have occupied the honorable
position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist
Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of
over 95% of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first
National Assembly was established on
December 2nd that same year;
this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had
been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary
prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support
of the overwhelming majority of the people.
There
were those overseas who, aware of my critical health condition,
thought that my provisional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the
position of President of the State Council, which I left to First
Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final. But Raul, who is also
minister of the Armed Forces on account of his own personal merits,
and the other comrades of the Party and State leadership were
unwilling to consider me out of public life despite my unstable
health condition.
It was an uncomfortable situation for me
vis-à-vis an adversary which had done everything possible to
get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply.
Later, in my
necessary retreat, I was able to recover the full command of my mind
as well as the possibility for much reading and meditation. I had
enough physical strength to write for many hours, which I shared with
the corresponding rehabilitation and recovery programs. Basic common
sense indicated that such activity was within my reach. On the other
hand, when referring to my health I was extremely careful to avoid
raising expectations since I felt that an
adverse ending would
bring traumatic news to our people in the midst of the battle. Thus,
my first duty was to prepare our people both politically and
psychologically for my absence after so many years of struggle. I
kept saying that my recovery “was not without risks.”
My
wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath.
That’s all I can offer.
To my dearest compatriots, who have
recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament
where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to
the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire
to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the
positions of President of the State Council and Commander in
Chief.
In short letters addressed to Randy Alonso, Director of
the Round Table National TV Program, –letters which at my request
were made public– I discreetly introduced elements of this message I
am writing today, when not even the addressee of such letters was
aware of my intention. I trusted Randy, whom I knew very well from
his days as a student of Journalism. In those days I met almost on a
weekly basis with the main representatives of the University students
from the provinces at the library of the large house in Kohly where
they lived. Today, the entire country is an immense
University.
Following
are some paragraphs chosen from the letter addressed to Randy on
December 17, 2007:
“I
strongly believe that the answers to the current problems facing
Cuban society, which has, as an average, a twelfth grade of
education, almost a million university graduates, and a
real
possibility for all its citizens to become educated without
their being in any way discriminated against, require more variables
for each concrete problem than those contained in a chess game. We
cannot ignore one single detail; this is not an easy path to take, if
the intelligence of a human being in a revolutionary society is to
prevail over instinct.
“My elemental duty is not to cling to
positions, much less to stand in the way of younger persons, but
rather to contribute my own experience and ideas whose modest value
comes from the exceptional era that I had the privilege of living
in.
"Like Niemeyer, I believe that one has to be consistent
right up to the end.”
Letter
from January 8, 2008:
“…I
am a firm supporter of the united vote (a principle that preserves
the unknown merits), which allowed us to avoid the tendency to copy
what came to us from countries of the former socialist bloc,
including the portrait of the one candidate, as singular as his
solidarity towards Cuba. I deeply respect that first attempt at
building socialism, thanks to which we were able to continue along
the path we had chosen.”
And I reiterated in that letter
that “…I never forget that ‘all of the world’s glory fits in
a kernel of corn.”
Therefore, it would be a betrayal to my
conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and
dedication than I am physically able to offer. This I say devoid of
all drama.
Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on
cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early
stages of the process. Some were very young, almost children, when
they joined the fight on the mountains and later they have given
glory to the country with their heroic performance and their
internationalist missions. They have the authority and the experience
to guarantee the replacement. There is also the intermediate
generation which learned together with us the basics of the complex
and almost unattainable art of organizing and leading a
revolution.
The path will always be difficult and require from
everyone’s intelligent effort. I distrust the seemingly easy path
of apologetics or its antithesis the self-flagellation. We should
always be prepared for the worst variable. The principle of being as
prudent in success as steady in adversity cannot be forgotten. The
adversary to be defeated is extremely strong; however, we have been
able to keep it at bay for half a century.
This is not my
farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle
of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of ‘Reflections
by comrade Fidel.’ It will be just another weapon you can count on.
Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful.
Thanks.
Fidel
Castro Ruz
February
18, 2008
5:30 p.m.
