Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:36pm EDT
By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO (Reuters) - Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said
on Thursday it was impossible to say whether convalescing Fidel Castro
would be in a condition to be re-elected next year as leader of the
Communist island.
Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public for 15 months, is suffering
from an undisclosed intestinal illness and handed over power to his
brother Raul last year.
"I cannot predict whether he is going to be available to be president of
the state, but I also cannot say whether I will keep being a lawmaker,"
Alarcon said during a news conference on a visit to Quito.
"Revolutionaries never retire," he said.
Alarcon said Castro was "rehabilitating and recuperating" while keeping
up with political and economic developments in Cuba and overseas.
Cuba's assembly has to decide in March of next year whether Fidel Castro
can be ratified as head of state. Many analysts believe a stable
transfer of power to Raul Castro has already taken place.
Castro ceded power in July 2006 for the first time since his 1959
revolution after emergency surgery. He has appeared in pre-taped
television interviews, but has given no indication whether he intends to
return toe office.
Alarcon's comments came a day after U.S. President George W. Bush called
Castro's government a "disgraced and dying order" and urged Cubans to
push for democratic change. Cuban officials accuse Washington of trying
to incite violence.
"This is just an illustration of delirium," Alarcon said, commenting on
Bush's speech. "They will never have Cuba."
Every year since 1992, the U.N. General Assembly has told the White
House to lift its economic embargo against Cuba. The next such vote is
scheduled for next week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2530561720071025
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