Fidel Castro resigns Cuban presidency after 49 years. Media credit to Jerica Fagan.

Fidel Castro resigns Cuban presidency
Beverly Condgon | 2/20/08 | World News

After 49 years of rule threaded with U.S.-Cuban tensions, Fidel Castro is ready to step down from the world's longest rule as head of government.

Castro made the announcement to retire late February over early morning radio and television broadcasts Tuesday, Feb. 19. 

"I am not saying goodbye to you," read Castro from his letter addressed to the people of Cuba. "I only wish to fight as a soldier of ideas." He said he would not "aspire to" or "accept" a new term when the newly elected parliament meets on Sunday (AP).

The communist dictator, bedridden for 19 months, says he owes his resignation to his ill health. 

"My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote in Granma, the Communist Party daily.  "It would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more dedication than I am physically able to offer," continued Castro (Wall Street Journal).

Castro seized power in 1959 as a rebel against Fulgencio Batista, with promises to hold elections and restore the Cuban constitution.

During Castro's intestinal surgery and recovery in July 2006, Castro's younger brother, Raul, and six other officials ceded power temporarily. According to Cuban experts, it is likely Raul will be Cuba's next president and commander-in-chief (Citizen-Times.com).

Raul Castro is first vice president of Cuba's Council of State, which places him as his brother's designated successor.  Many believe that when council members meet this Sunday, they will elect Raul as president and commander-in-chief (Wall Street Journal).

What does this mean for the Cuban people? Is his resignation a blessing or a disappointment to residents of Cuba? Does the dictator's resignation foreshadow better U.S.-Cuban relations?  The answers remain unclear.

"He will continue to be my commander-in-chief. He will continue to be my president," said Miriam, a 50-year-old Cuban resident. "But I'm not sad because after 49 years he is finally resting a bit" (AP).

"I don't know what to say. I just want to leave. This system cannot continue," said a Cuban garbage collector named Alexis (The Times).

Online bloggers on the website "The Real Cuba" recall life under Castro's rule. "49 YEARS WITHOUT HUMAN RIGHTS! 49 YEARS WITHOUT A FREE ELECTION! 49 YEARS WITHOUT A FREE PRESS! 49 YEARS OF OPPRESSION!" read flashing headlines under a picture of Castro. The site is a source that believes "Castro's resignation won't change US Policy."

Cuban-American citizens Miguel Gomez Beruvides and Santiago Portal celebrated in a Little Havana neighborhood in Miama, Florida following the announcement. "Freedom for Cuba" read Beruvides' pink poster board. Portal held a sign reading, "MURIO FIDEL YO QUIERO EL CAMBIO." Translated to English, it reads, "Fidel is dead. I want the change." (AP)

President Bush reacted to the resignation with hopes for "a democratic transition" in the communist island 90 miles south of Florida.  "The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty," the U.S. president said at a news conference in Rwanda during his five-nation tour of Africa.  "The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy and eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections…I believe that the change from Fidel Castro ought to begin...a democratic transition," he continued. (CNN)

European leaders echoed common expectations.

"The Cuban people will now be looking to the future, a future which we hope will offer them political progress founded on democracy and human rights," said David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary (The Times).

Other reactions weren't as optimistic. "It's the same repression inside Cuba. No freedom. No refuge. Lack of liberty," said 54 year-old Cuban-American Pedro Lopez, who fled Cuba about 30 years ago (Yahoo News).

"It doesn't mean any change to the system. It doesn't mean there will be freedom for the Cubans. One big dictator is replacing the other," said Janisset Rivero, executive director of Cuban Democratic Directorate, which works with critics of Castro in Cuba (CNN).

"It will be a big deal when political prisoners are released, when political parties are allowed to organize, when the country stops being ruled by a single party," Rivero said (CNN).

"Today is not the ultimate day of change; it's the beginning of a process hopefully that will lead to change, to real change…The initial change has to come from the Cuban government," said Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez in a CNN interview.

The senator is a Cuban native who immigrated to the U.S. at 15 and continued to voice his opposition to Fidel Castro's policies in the U.S.  "I have no hope that Raúl Castro—who has been, frankly, the older brother's enforcer through most of the time they've been in power-will be the kind of agent of change that Cuba needs today…What I think will happen is that we'll see, hopefully, in the future a new set of leaders that will come with new ideas," said the senator in the Tuesday interview.

Martinez said he is hopeful that probable Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, will push "a consistent policy on Cuba" that will insist the Cuban government "treat people with decency" (CBS News).

McCain has said he wouldn't alter the embargo on Cuba until the government holds free elections and liberates political prisoners. "I fear that anything short of that, that any assistance that came in earlier than that, might serve to prop up a new regime," he told a crowd of supporters in Milwaukee (Reuters).

Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also voiced their concerns.
 
"If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades," Obama said (Reuters).

"I would say to the new leadership the American people are ready to meet you if you move forward toward the path of democracy," Clinton said in a statement (Reuters).

U.S.-Cuban relations might remain bitter despite Castro's resignation. "I can't imagine that happening any time soon," said Cuba's Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Tuesday when asked whether Castro's resignation would change U.S. policy. The U.S. embargo on Cuba will remain in place said Negroponte (CNN).

Granite Hills’ AP Civics and World History Honors teacher Andrew Peterson is concerned what Castro’s resignation will mean for U.S.-Cuba relations. 

“This seems to be a time of waiting until we see how Raul Castro will be perceived.  It’s not entirely clear. Will the trade embargo be lifted? Will Americans be able to travel to Cuba anytime soon? Will Cuba open up to foreign investment?” Peterson said.