Announcement from the President to the Cuban people

Announcement from the President to the Cuban people

DUE to the enormous effort made to visit the Argentine city of Córdoba,
participate in the MERCOSUR meeting, in the closing session of the
Summit of the Peoples in the historical University of Córdoba and the
visit to Altagracia, the city where Che lived as a child, and in
addition to that immediately attending the commemoration of the 53rd
anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
garrisons on July 26, 1953 in the provinces of Granma and Holguín,
compounded by days and nights of continuous work with barely any sleep
have all resulted in my health, which has stood up to every test, being
subjected to extreme stress and breaking down. This provoked an acute
intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding which obliged me to undergo a
complicated surgical operation. All the details of this health accident
are confirmed by X-rays, endoscopies and filmed material. The operation
has obliged me to take various weeks of rest, at a remove from my
responsibilities and duties.

Given that our country is threatened in circumstances like this by the
government of the United States, I have taken the following decision:

1) I provisionally delegate my functions as first secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba to the second
secretary, comrade Raúl Castro Ruz.

2) I provisionally delegate my functions as Commander in Chief of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces to the abovementioned comrade, General of
the Army Raúl Castro Ruz.

3) I provisionally delegate my functions as president of the Council
of State and the government of the Republic of Cuba to the first vice
president, comrade Raúl Castro Ruz.

4) I provisionally delegate my functions as the principal instigator
of the National and International Public Health Program to member of the
Political Bureau and Minister of Public Health, comrade José Ramón
Balaguer Cabrera.

5) I provisionally delegate my functions as the principal instigator
of the National and International Education Program to comrades José
Ramón Machado Ventura and Esteban Lazo Hernández, members of the
Political Bureau.

6) I provisionally delegate my functions as the principal instigator
of the National Program of the Energy Revolution in Cuba and cooperation
with other countries in this sphere to comrade Carlos Lage Dávila,
member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Executive Committee
of the Council of Ministers.

The funds corresponding to these three programs: Health, Education and
Energy, should continue being managed and prioritized, as I have been
doing personally, by comrades Carlos Lage Dávila, secretary of the
Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers; Francisco Soberón
Valdés, minister president of the Central Bank of Cuba; and Felipe Pérez
Roque, minister of foreign affairs, who have accompanied me in these
matters and who should constitute a committee for that objective.

Our glorious Communist Party, supported by the mass organizations and
all the people, has the mission of assuming the task entrusted in this
announcement.

The Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, scheduled for September 11-16,
should receive the greatest attention of the Cuban state and nation to
take place with the maximum brilliance on the agreed date. I would ask
everyone to postpone the anniversary of my 80th birthday, which
thousands of personalities so generously agreed to celebrate on August
13, to December 2 of this year, the 50th anniversary of the Granma Landing.

I ask the Central Committee of the Party and the National Assembly of
People's Power to give their firmest support to this announcement.

I do not harbor the slightest doubt that our people and our Revolution
will fight until the last drop of blood to defend these and other ideas
and measures that are necessary for safeguarding this historical process.

Imperialism will never be able to crush Cuba.

The Battle of Ideas will continue advancing.

¡Viva la Patria!

¡Viva la Revolución!

¡Viva el Socialismo!

¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/agosto/mar1/32proclama.html