|
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!
Fidel Castro Ruz
Commander in Chief
First Secretary of the Party and
President of the Councils of
State and
Ministers of the Republic of
Cuba.
July 31, 2006, 6:22 p.m. |
