Fidel Castro resigns as Cuba's president

HAVANA - An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.

The end of Castro's rule — the longest in the world for a head of government — frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.

"My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote in a letter published Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer."

In the pre-dawn hours, most Cubans were unaware of Castro's message, and Havana's streets were quiet. It wasn't until 5 a.m., several hours after Castro's message was posted on the internet, that official radio began reading the missive to early risers.

By sunrise, most people headed to work in Havana seemed to have heard the news, which they appeared to accept without obvious signs of emotion. There were no tears or smiles as Cubans went about their usual business.

"He will continue to be my commander in chief, he will continue to be my president," said Miriam, a 50-year-old boat worker waiting for the bus to Havana port. "But I'm not sad because he isn't leaving, and after 49 years he is finally resting a bit."

Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, when he announced that he had undergone intestinal surgery. Since then, the elder Castro has not been seen in public, appearing only sporadically in official photographs and videotapes and publishing dense essays about mostly international themes as his younger brother has consolidated his rule.

There had been widespread speculation about whether Castro would continue as president when the new National Assembly meets Sunday to pick the country's top leadership. Castro has been Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959 — monarchs excepted, he was the world's longest ruling head of state.

Castro said Cuban officials had wanted him to remain in power after his surgery.

"It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-a-vis an adversary that had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply," he said in a reference to the United States.

Castro remains a member of parliament and is likely to be elected to the 31-member Council of State on Sunday, though he will no longer be its president. Raul Castro's wife, Vilma Espin, maintained her council seat until her death last year even though she was too sick to attend meetings for many months.

Castro also retains his powerful post as first secretary of Cuba's Communist Party. The party leadership posts generally are renewed at party congresses, and the last one was held in 1997.

The resignation opens the path for Raul Castro's succession to the presidency, and the full autonomy he has lacked in leading a caretaker government. The younger Castro has raised expectations among Cubans for modest economic and other reforms, stating last year that the country requires unspecified "structural changes" and acknowledging that government wages that average about $19 a month do not satisfy basic needs.

As first vice president of Cuba's Council of State, Raul Castro was his brother's constitutionally designated successor and appears to be a shoo-in for the presidential post when the council meets Sunday. More uncertain is who will be chosen as Raul's new successor, although 56-year-old council Vice President Carlos Lage, who is Cuba's de facto prime minister, is a strong possibility.

"Raul is also old," allowed Isabel, a 61-year-old Havana street sweeper, who listened to Castro's message being read on state radio with other fellow workers. "As a Cuban, I am thinking that Carlos Lage, or (Foreign Minister) Felipe Perez Roque, or another younger person with new eyes" could follow the younger Castro brother, she added.

Bush, traveling in Rwanda, pledged to "help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty."

"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy," he said. "Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections — and I mean free, and I mean fair — not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy."

The United States built a detailed plan in 2005 for American assistance to ensure a democratic transition on the island of 11.2 million people after Castro's death. But Cuban officials have insisted that the island's socialist political and economic systems will outlive Castro.

"The adversary to be defeated is extremely strong," Castro wrote Tuesday. "However, we have been able to keep it at bay for half a century."

Castro rose to power on New Year's Day 1959 and reshaped Cuba into a communist state 90 miles from U.S. shores. The fiery guerrilla leader survived assassination attempts, a CIA-backed invasion and a missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Ten U.S. administrations tried to topple him, most famously in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.

His ironclad rule ensured Cuba remained communist long after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe.

Castro's supporters admired his ability to provide a high level of health care and education for citizens while remaining fully independent of the United States. His detractors called him a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.

The United States was the first country to recognize Castro's government, but the countries soon clashed as Castro seized American property and invited Soviet aid.

On April 16, 1961, Castro declared his revolution to be socialist. A day later, he defeated the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States squeezed Cuba's economy and the CIA plotted to kill Castro. Hostility reached its peak with the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

The collapse of the Soviet Union sent Cuba into economic crisis, but the economy recovered in the late 1990s with a tourism boom.

Report: Castro in serious condition

Cuban leader said to have diverticulitis complications, Spain’s El Pais says

NBC News and news services

Updated: 1 hour, 3 minutes ago

HAVANA - Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in serious condition after complications following three failed operations on his large intestine for diverticulitis, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Monday.

Castro suffered an infection that worsened to peritonitis, the newspaper's Tuesday edition said, citing two medical sources at the Madrid hospital where a surgeon who visited Castro in December works. The report was posted on the newspaper's Web site.

Despite its seeming immediacy, the El Pais report may shed no new light on Castro's current condition. Sources told NBC News on Monday that the El Pais article was not based on new information, but on information from the Spanish surgeon who examined Castro in December.

The Spanish doctor who examined Castro said he does not have cancer and could return to govern Cuba if he recovered fully from his surgery.

In a New Year's message issued on Dec. 30, Castro told Cubans that he was recovering slowly from surgery and said his recovery was "far from being a lost battle."

Problem with stitches
Earlier Monday, a diplomat said the ailing Cuban leader "has problems with his stitches healing."

Cuban officials in Havana were not immediately available to comment on the envoy's remarks. But Cuban authorities have been insistent they will not divulge details of Castro's illness.

The diplomat said Castro was taken to the operating theater seven times in a single day in December to deal with the problem of his stitches. He did not give details.

On Saturday, Castro's eldest son, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, told reporters in Chile that his father is on the mend.

"He's getting better, better, I see him improving," the Soviet-trained nuclear physicist said, adding that his father was in a "positive and optimistic mood."

Castro, who took power in Cuba in 1959, has not been seen in public since July 26. He handed over power to his brother five days later, fueling speculation he is so ill he may never return to power on the communist-run Caribbean island.

Report: Acts of civil protest on rise in Cuba

BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

From candlelight vigils to hunger strikes and even a mountain hike, Fidel Castro opponents logged more than 3,300 acts of civil disobedience in Cuba last year, nearly twice the number of the year before, according to a report to be released today.

As Castro's government continues a campaign of reprisals against dissidents that began with a wave of arrests three years ago, members of the opposition movement say more people are speaking up and joining up.

''Repression generates rebellion,'' said Janisset Rivero, executive director of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, an exile organization that published Steps to Freedom, to be released tonight at the University of Miami.

The report's numbers underscore growing discontent with the quality of life in Cuba, and the government's inability to satisfy basic needs. And while the government's 2003 crackdown decapitated much of the dissident movement, each year the number of acts of civil resistance climbs, the report said. Among the group's findings:

• The central province of Villa Clara appears to be a hotbed of political opposition, logging far more protests than any other province. Even though nearly all of the island's internationally known dissident activists live in Havana, only 11 percent of last year's civil disobedience took place there.

• 25 hunger strikes were held by prisoners.

• The Ladies in White, the group of female relatives of the 75 political prisoners picked up in the 2003 sweep, held 182 different protests.

• The 3,322 acts logged in 2005 -- including 2,613 vigils -- represent an 85 percent increase over the 1,805 acts of civil disobedience in 2004.

`LOSING THEIR FEAR'

''What we're seeing is a direct relation between the incapacity of the regime's administration -- economically, politically, the errors they commit every day -- and the discontent of the people,'' Rivero said. ``People see no hope, but they are losing their fear.''

The Directorate helps pro-democracy organizations on the island. It receives a portion of its funding, some $1 million, from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The USAID money goes to a project, separate from the civil disobedience report, that focuses on outreach.

The Directorate's federal funding has made it a frequent object of criticism from the Cuban government. The report has come out annually since 1997, documenting each reported act of disobedience by date and address and citing the source. When it began a decade ago, the listing was of a scant 44 events. That more than doubled to 100 events in 1998, eventually jumping to 1,328 in 2003.

''The opposition has taken a lower profile since July 2005, when Fidel Castro incited violence against us in a speech he gave,'' said Eliécer Consuegra Rivas, of the Eastern Democratic Alliance in Holguín. 'But as that happens, horizons broaden. The police will loot an independent library, and people on the street come forward and say, `How are they going to take the books?' ''

Cuban dissident leaders say they lost momentum when the 75 were jailed, but have since overcome the leadership loss.

''The 2003 wave was a big blow to the opposition,'' said Juan Carlos González Leiva, a Ciego de Avila activist who was jailed for two years for heading the Cuban Human Rights Foundation. ``It decapitated the movement, so that now we have opposition members leaving the country and being jailed. But there are two sides to that: we lose people to jail and exile, but those people have friends and family who join the ranks.''

LACK OF FUNDING

He said the opposition movement is stymied by a lack of funding and materials. The issue has been a sticking point for the Bush administration, which last year pledged to provide dissidents an additional $80 million.

But U.S. law prohibits AID from sending cash, and Cuban law prohibits dissidents from receiving it.

González cut the conversation short when he said the pro-government mob throwing rocks at the home of another dissident where González was using the phone had set the roof on fire. Reached later, he said a few pails of water put out the fire.

Ailing Castro gives power to brother

Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Monday night and told Cubans he will undergo surgery.

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

Because of that illness, Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his brother and successor Raul, the defense minister, according to the statement read by Carlos Valenciaga.

Associated Press

The Lost City - Andy Garcia

This is an excellent movie releasing nationwide on 4/28/06. It is about the life, trials and tribulations of a Cuban man living in Havana, Cuba during the time of the Batista regime, and the beginning of the Castro Socialist revolution. The movie is well directed, and exemplifies what Cubans went through during the tyranny of Fidel Castro and still go through today. It is a love story, and a story about a love that can never be regained. Please go see this movie, it is a great movie!

Please also check out this blog about the movie, and excerpts of an interview with Andy Garcia about the movie (click here)

Que dios nos vendigas...y que un dia Cuba sere libre!

Ichiro comes up big for Japan in win over Cuba

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- Forget beisbol. This was yakyu at its best, and the inaugural World Baseball Classic belongs to Japan.

Ichiro Suzuki and his less-famous countrymen beat Cuba 10-6 in the championship game Monday night, ripping a page out of Cuba's scorebook by winning a major international tournament.

On a festive night when Cuban and Japanese fans danced to "Surf City" and Sadaharu Oh escorted Hank Aaron -- there's 1,623 homer runs between them -- onto the field for the ceremonial first pitch, Japan won the 16-nation tournament that showed baseball in March can matter.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Nobuhiko Matsunaka scored three runs and had three hits for Japan on Monday night.

The Classic's slogan is "Baseball Spoken Here." In this case, it's yakyu, which in Japanese means "field ball."

Suzuki doubled, singled and drove in a run. He also scored three times, including in a four-run first inning that proved Cuba's pitchers are vulnerable, after all.

Cuba's fans perked up when their team, wearing its lucky red uniforms, pulled to 6-5 on a two-run homer by Frederich Cepeda with one out in the eighth. Akinori Otsuka, the former San Diego Padres reliever now with Texas, came on and retired the side.

Suzuki singled in the ninth to score Munenori Kawasaki on a close play at the plate and make it 7-5. Kawasaki slid, turned and stuck his right hand just inside of catcher Ariel Pestano's left foot to -- perhaps -- touch the plate. Japan broke it open on a two-run single by pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome and a sacrifice fly by Michihiro Ogasawara.

Otsuka allowed a run in the ninth before closing it out for a save.

With the United States failing to make it out of the second round and the Dominican Republic losing to Cuba in the semifinals, Suzuki, the Seattle Mariners star, was the only major leaguer in the starting lineups. Otsuka is the only other big leaguer on Japan's roster.

The Cubans consider themselves amateurs, although Miguel Tejada and Albert Pujols, who played for the Dominican Republic, said leading up to the semis that most of the Cubans could be in the majors.

But for as good as the Cubans are -- they had won 22 of 24 games in international competition and have dominated the globe for decades -- they cracked at the worst possible time.

Japan took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first while hitting the ball out of the infield just once.

Cuba starter Ormari Romero was on a short leash to begin with, but was yanked after throwing 23 pitches. He retired leadoff hitter Kawasaki, then loaded the bases on infield singles by Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Nobuhiko Matsunaka, and a walk to Suzuki.

Vicyhoandry Odelin came on and hit Hitoshi Tamura on the left elbow with a pitch to force in the second run, walked Ogasawara with two outs to bring in another, before Toshiaki Imae hit a sharp, two-run single up the middle to make it 4-0.

Eduardo Paret hit a leadoff homer for the Cubans in the first, but they didn't score again until the sixth, when they made it 6-3. One of Cuba's two runs that inning was unearned due to an error by shortstop Kawasaki, who earlier in the game made two brilliant plays. Japan took a 6-1 lead by scoring twice in the fifth on three straight hits -- Suzuki's leadoff double and singles by Matsunaka and Tamura.

At first, communist Cuba was denied a permit to participate in the tournament due to decades of political animosity with the U.S. government. And Japan kept a stiff upper lip after it appeared to be deprived of the go-ahead run in a 4-3 loss to the United Sates on March 12 in the opener of Round 2.

The tournament was considered a success, coming not long after baseball was booted from the Olympics effective in 2012.

Petco Park, the San Diego Padres' downtown ballpark, hasn't seen such a festive night since it opened in 2004.

Fans from both countries waved flags, blew horns and banged cowbells.

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra played the national anthems of Japan, Cuba and the United States. The Japanese players bowed after their anthem was played.

Oh, the Japanese hero who hit 868 homers and now manages the national team, escorted Aaron to the third-base line. Aaron, whose 755 homers are the most in major league history, went to the mound by himself to throw the ceremonial first pitch to Pestano, who had Aaron autograph the ball.

After streamers were shot from the upper deck, it was time for beisbol ... and yakyu.

For Miami's Cubans, a choice between sports, politics

Associated Press

MIAMI -- Cuban immigrant Luis Gomez was quick to pick his favorite in the World Baseball Classic championship game between Japan and Cuba.

"We're Cubans. We root for Cuba," the 83-year-old said as he picked up his usual lunch of chicken and rice at Los Pinarenos cafe in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

Across the counter, shopkeeper Angel Hernandez, 66, shook his head.

"If Cuba wins, Fidel wins," Hernandez said. "I hope Japan wins."

As Cuba and Japan prepared for Monday night's game in San Diego, Miami's Cubans found themselves in an awkward position, split over whether to root for the Cubans or protest the participation of the communist country in the tournament.

Their passion for baseball and Cuba is legendary, but so too is their hatred of Fidel Castro and their opposition to anything that makes him look good.

Hernandez, who fled Cuba in 1960, was quick to note that he has nothing against players such as pitchers Pedro Lazo and Ormario Romero, but added, "Fidel, he uses everything. He will use a win. It will make him look better at home and internationally."

Gomez agreed with that, but added: "What does a baseball player, or a doctor for that matter, have to do with the politics?"

For decades the answer has been a lot.

Hundreds of Cuban musicians, artists and intellectuals have been refused U.S. visas under a 1985 U.S. presidential proclamation that prohibits most Cuban government employees from entering the United States. Most of these artists are compensated by the Cuban government.

The restrictions have gotten even tighter in recent years.

The U.S. Treasury Department initially refused the visa for the Cuban team to play in the World Baseball Classic, reversing its stance only after Cuba promised to donate profits from the tournament to victims of Hurricane Katrina -- meaning Castro's government would receive no financial gain.

Over the weekend, demonstrators decried the participation of the Cuban team during a protest along Little Havana's main drag, Calle Ocho, and the AM radio dial's Spanish-language talk shows were filled with people sounding off about the Classic.

South of Little Havana in the upscale city of Coral Gables, where cafes and haute couture bridal boutiques line the central street, Omar Quereshy, who describes himself as half Cuban, half Pakistani, scoffed at the notion that he should boycott the team of his mother's native country.

"That's ludicrous," the 25-year-old accountant said. "Athletes are athletes."

Yet for 30-year-old Victor Uranga of Sweetwater, rooting against Cuba would be showing respect for family. His fled Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

"I was rooting for the U.S., but I guess now I'm going for Japan," Uranga said, with what were clearly mixed feelings.

"We've got to give credit, a lot of credit, to that Cuban team. Everyone was just under the impression that they always played amateurs, and they never going to go toe-to-toe with the professionals, and definitely they've done that and then some," he said. "But feelings are still strong, especially in the older generation, and I'm not about to go against that."

Once Colon leaves, Cuba puts pieces together

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- Frederich Cepeda and his Cuban countrymen consider themselves amateur baseball players back home, though in reality they're much closer to the level of the big-name American multimillionaires known around the world.

Only minus the money. The star treatment is there on the streets of Havana.

Major leaguers or not, Cuba's dominance on baseball's international stage is unparalleled -- and the Cubans are finally getting a chance to show it in the United States, too.

Osmani Urrutia hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, Yadel Marti capped his sensational tournament by combining with Pedro Lazo on an eight-hitter, and Cuba defeated the Dominican Republic 3-1 Saturday to reach the championship game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

Rarely can Cuba play against such talent as it has seen in the Classic -- major league All-Stars at nearly every position.

"This is a revolutionary team," said Cepeda, Cuba's left fielder. "Baseball is not judged by the price of the athletes but by the heart of the people."

Wearing its lucky red uniforms for only the second time in the tournament, Cuba avenged a 7-3 loss to the Dominicans from five days earlier and moved within one victory of adding another title to the country's long list of baseball accomplishments.

Chants of "Cuba! Cuba!" began in the late innings from the crowd of 41,268 for a squad with no major leaguers. The Cubans sprinted onto the field to celebrate when Lazo struck out pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano to end it. After hugs and high-fives, the Cubans acknowledged their fans by waving their caps.

Cuba will play the winner of Saturday's late game between unbeaten South Korea and Japan in the championship of the 16-team Classic on Monday night at Petco Park.

Yoandry Garlobo had three hits, and Alexei Ramirez and Cepeda each drove in runs in their team's decisive seventh inning that featured several mistakes by the Dominicans right after they took a 1-0 lead in the sixth on an unearned run.

Cuba, champion of the 2005 World Cup, 2004 Olympics and '03 Pan American Games played in Santo Domingo, is clearly in midseason form while the Dominicans are still working to find their rhythm after the winter.

The Cubans had to wait until the Dominicans went to their bullpen following six shutout innings by reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon to get anything going offensively. Colon, a 21-game winner last year for the Los Angeles Angels, might have gone another inning had it not been for a blister on his pitching hand.

Just like the Americans, who lost 2-1 to Mexico on Thursday night for a surprising early exit from the Classic, most of the Dominican players will head back to their major league camps wondering what went wrong and left to wait until 2009 for another shot in the WBC.

The Dominicans' All-Star roster included Albert Pujols, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Tejada, David Ortiz and Moises Alou -- a team that Dominican general manager Stan Javier said a day earlier should be the best in the world.

"We should be proud," said Pujols, the St. Louis slugger and 2005 NL MVP. "We fell short. We wanted to win the whole thing for our country. ... I don't think our bats responded the way they were supposed to respond. Our pitching did their job, we just didn't find our offense. They played great defense. That's the way it goes."

The Dominicans got a big break in the sixth when Cuban second baseman Yulieski Gourriel booted a routine grounder by Beltre, then rushed the throw to first and the ball sailed over Ariel Borrero. Tejada scored on the misplay for a 1-0 lead, but it didn't last long.

Gourriel opened the seventh with an infield single off loser Odalis Perez, and third baseman Beltre made a costly mistake when his throw to first was in the dirt, allowing Gourriel to reach second. Pinch-hitter Eriel Sanchez followed with a dribbler down the third-base line for another infield single that advanced Gourriel.

Cepeda followed with an RBI groundout to tie the game, and Urrutia's single up the middle on the first pitch from reliever Salomon Torres gave Cuba a 2-1 lead. Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly three batters later.

Marti pitched 4 1/3 shutout innings to extend his scoreless streak to 12 2/3 innings in the tournament. He didn't give up a run in four WBC appearances.

Lazo then went the final 4 2/3 innings for the win. He retired Ortiz and Beltre on fly balls in the eighth with the potential tying runs aboard.

"We are all amateur players, therefore playing against major league players is the greatest victory for us," Cepeda said.

Marti received a visit on the mound before facing cleanup hitter Ortiz in the first with two runners on, and Lazo and another pitcher immediately began warming up. But Ortiz grounded into an inning-ending double play on a 3-2 pitch.

There was no lacking for Latin flavor.

Pujols carried out his country's flag before the Dominican team was introduced, with his countrymen waving flags, shaking maracas, pounding wooden sticks together and banging drums and other instruments.

Two hours before the first pitch, a group of Dominicans with flags wrapped around their bodies jumped up and down outside the stadium cheering "Dominicana! Dominicana!"

After anthems for Cuba, the Dominicans and United States were played with flags representing all 16 participating countries, the athletes met in the middle of the diamond to shake hands.

The mutual respect from both clubs was evident.

"We really went at it hard like professionals," Dominican manager Manny Acta said. "They deserve the credit. I'd rather give them credit than make excuses."