By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Aug 1 2006 (IPS)

A statement by Cuban President Fidel Castro that was read on live TV late Monday announced that he was temporarily handing over power after a delicate surgical operation.

In the message, read by his secretary Carlos Valenciaga, Castro implied that he would not take part in the upcoming summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, to be held in September in the Cuban capital, and that the celebrations for his 80th birthday, on Aug. 13, would be postponed to Dec. 2.

He left his brother Raúl Castro, 75 – already his designated successor in case of illness or death – at the head of the Council of State and the governing Communist Party.

Raúl Castro, who is minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, is also temporarily serving as commander in chief of all branches of the Cuban military.

Castro, who has ruled Cuba since 1959, said his health problems were caused by a taxing trip to Argentina in late July (the height of the southern hemisphere winter) and by the enormous efforts expended, working day and night – “and barely sleeping” – for the commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of the assault he led on the Moncada army barracks, which marked the start of the 1959 revolution.

“That touched off acute intestinal distress with sustained bleeding, which forced me to undergo complicated surgery,” he said in the statement, adding that the operation “will force me to forgo my responsibilities and duties for several weeks.”

Castro also stated that Cuba “is endangered in such circumstances by the government of the United States,” which is why he decided to delegate power to his brother Raúl.

According to the plan outlined in the communiqué, he named other government and Communist Party leaders to continue running the energy, health and education programmes that he has personally been heading up over the last two or three years.

Vice President Carlos Lage, the minister who heads the Central Bank, Francisco Soberón, and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque are to continue “administering and prioritising” the funds for these plans, and are to set up a commission to that end.

Although Castro’s surgery came as a surprise, the manner in which he organised the government to guarantee continuity and stability did not.

In early July, the Communist Party resurrected the Secretariat, an executive organ that was dismantled in the early 1990s, in what was interpreted as a step in the preparations to facilitate the eventual succession.

Raúl himself publicly stated on Jun. 14 that “Only the Communist Party…can be the worthy heir of the trust deposited by the people in their leader.”

The Communist Party of Cuba has more than 850,000 members, and the Union of Young Communists (UJC) has more than 600,000.

According to the constitution, the Communist Party is the supreme governing force of society and the state, which organises and orients common efforts towards the “high purposes of building socialism and advancing towards a communist society.”

This is the third time in several years that Castro has had health problems, but the first time he has delegated power.

In 2001 he fainted as a result in a drop in blood pressure while giving a speech, but he appeared on TV a few hours later with his brother Raúl to explain what had happened.

And on Oct. 20, 2004, he fell and broke his left knee and right arm. An official statement issued the following day made it clear that the injuries would not keep him from his duties.

The news that Castro was temporarily handing over power was celebrated into the wee hours of the morning Tuesday by members of the Cuban exile community in Miami, Florida. But all was calm in the Cuban capital. (END/IPS/LA CA IP/TRASP-SW/PG/DCL/06)

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