Fidel Castro Resigns

Smordnys s'regrepsA writes "Fidel Castro, the leader of the island nation of Cuba has declined the possibility of keeping his seat as President, after the February 24th National Assembly election. "I neither will aspire to nor will I accept — I repeat — I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," Castro wrote almost 19 months after a severe illness caused him to hand power temporarily to his brother Raul."

Comments

I couldn't help but post this amazing quote.

[YojimboJango]

From the article: "Eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections. And I mean free, and I mean fair -- not these kinds of staged elections that the Castro brothers tried to foist off as being true democracy," Bush said, on the road in Rwanda. Anyone get the vibe that Bush is just jealous. I think the United States needs a few of these free and fair elections unlike the ones we've had for the last 8 years.

Re:News for Nerds

[SQLGuru]

It is for Cuban nerds (not me).....maybe now they can get some decent hardware.

Layne

And old revolutionary, a new revolution

[Eukariote]

Ironic, an old revolutionary retires while a new revolution is pending over in the US. He may yet live to see it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7191570287261358564.

Was Castro a force for good? Maybe at first, but he soon became rather autocratic. Cuba is better off without him.

Yeah, Mission accomplished, watch W take credit

[ackthpt]

Bloke's been in charge for half a century and he's finally stepping down.

In other news Ronald Reagan can take credit for the fall of the USSR, not the internal politics which were bringing the Soviet Reign to an end.

Re:Yeah, Mission accomplished, watch W take credit

[Applekid]

When you're the only candidate on the ballot, have no term limits, and any contenders to the office find their limbs chopped off and families murdered, yeah, I guess your reign can last as long as you want it to, old age not withstanding.

Heh, another net positive that Bush can claim credit for even though he had no hand in it's happening.

who is Richard Stallman going to copy now?

[peter303]

See, there is a /. link in this story.

Re:Thank God

[molarmass192]

Ohhhhh ... thats f-ing priceless ... please, enlighten us as to the "shitball stunts" that France has pulled against the US? You know, stuff that makes the Cuban Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs seem like silly jokes between two old friends.

Re:Yawn...

[phayes]

Remind me how many US citizens are incarcerated in Guantanamo? Oh, thats right. There aren't any. As political prisoners are invariably citizens of the detaining state, that rules them out. Got any other terms you use that you don't know the meaning to that you would like clarified?

Re:If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...

[Applekid]

Yes I have been there many times. I don't see a lot of the BS you posted. Mostly likely, as a tourist, you stayed in tourist areas. None of the places where you would need a resident's card to get into, which, conveniently, are these unkept slums of poverty. You probably stayed in a nice hotel with electricity, air conditioning, and internet access. Internet access alone is enough to get the common Cuban without the luxury of being in the designated front-of-stage areas thrown in jail. A few blocks down the road you probably had a grocery store filled with just about every item you could want, like in any industrialized nation's grocery store. But you didn't have to carry your ration card, and you didn't have to choose between either canned meat or toilet paper. If you got sick you probably had an excellent hospital waiting for you with private rooms and the skilled doctors and the latest in technologies, not the crumbling biological dumps where they can barely keep the bathrooms clean and the only anti-biotic they have is pennicillin.

The Castro regime tells the poor citizenry that the US embargo is why they suffer, yet for tourists armed with US dollars and Euros, it's nothing but the finest from the shining jewel of the caribbean.

Next time you're there, and you're in private with a local, ask about where their family is from and where they grew up. Build a rapport and then ask about them about the real cuba, not what the travel agent will tell you. If you're feeling inquisitive, give them a camera phone and ask them to take some snapshots and bring it back to you. You'll be surprised what you'll see off the beaten path of the Michael Moore tour.

You don't have to believe either me or parent. Just look at the evidence: if things are so wonderful in Cuba, why would people risk life and limb on barely seaworthy makeshift rafts through shark infested waters just to grab a clumpful of US soil? Are these the actions of citizens of nation that's not really all that bad off?

Re:Ironic statement

[presarioD]

Liberty is expensive, but it's cheaper than ever.

you've got to love it when americans refer to their fellow men (who were lied into giving their lives up for a shady but very lucrative cause) in derogatory terms like these... let me guess... nobody from your family entered this super-deal "bargain"? Talking about dehumanizing culture of cannibals...

It seems though the "liberty warriors" that actually make it out of that hell you're cheerleading about are having some...consciousness problems... committing suicide in the end...let me guess..."liberty is cheap but hard"... just give me a moment to throw up in disgust knowing that I belong to the same species as you... carry on, nothing to see here...

Re:Property

[foetusinc]

Please, drop the simplistic let-he-who-is-without-sin crap. The world is not black and white, and history is the story of thousands of years of lesser evils. There isn't a nation or a people on earth without blood so deep in the seams of their hands they can't tell it from their own. Grow some perspective and stop reading so much Chomsky.