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Cuba to replace Castro after 49 years
2008-02-24
Cuban lawmakers meet to name a new head of state for the first time in nearly a half-century on Sunday, five days after an ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro relinquished power. His 76-year-old younger brother Raul Castro, as first vice president and constitutionally designated successor, is widely expected to be picked as president of the ruling Council of State. The younger Castro, also Cuba's defense minister, has headed a caretaker government for 19 months since Fidel announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding his powers. The 614-member National Assembly, whose members were elected Jan. 20, is selecting a 31-member Council of State led by a president, who is the nation's head of state and government. Fidel Castro has held the position since the current government structure was created in 1976. For 18 years before that, he was prime minister -- a post that no longer exists. He evidently retains his position as a member of the National Assembly, to which he was re-elected to last month, and he remains the head of the Communist Party as first secretary. In an article published Saturday, Castro scoffed at suggestions in news reports that his retirement would lead to political changes on the island aided by Cuban exiles in the U.S. "The reality is otherwise," Castro wrote in the front page of the Communist Party newspaper Granma -- his final published comments as the nation's leader. He quoted approvingly from other articles that said his retirement showed the failure of U.S. officials to affect Cuba's political transition. In a similar column Friday, he said preparations for the parliament meeting "left me exhausted" and he did not regret his decision not to accept another presidential term. "I slept better than ever," he wrote. "My conscience was clear and I promised myself a vacation." In the eastern Cuba district that Fidel Castro represents as a lawmaker, residents debated on Saturday who should replace him. "Fidel is the greatest for us, but the most important thing now is that he rests and takes good care of himself," said 72-year-old retiree Juan Alvarez. "I think that he made an intelligent decision -- like all the decisions he made" since launching Cuba's revolution in the mid-1950s. ___ Associated Press writer Anne-Marie Garcia contributed to this report from Santiago, Cuba.
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