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| Fidel Castro |
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel
Castro delivered a valedictory speech Tuesday to the Communist Party that he
put in power a half-century ago, telling party members he is nearing the end of
his life and exhorting them to help his ideas survive.
‘‘I’ll be 90 years old soon,’’
Castro said in his most extensive public appearance in years. ‘‘Soon I’ll be
like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the
Cuban Communists will remain as proof on this planet that if they are worked at
with fervor and dignity, they can produce the material and cultural goods that
human beings need, and we need to fight without a truce to obtain them.’’
Castro spoke as the government
announced that his brother Raul will retain the Cuban Communist Party’s highest
post alongside his hardlined second-in-command. That announcement and Fidel
Castro’s speech together delivered a resounding message that the island’s
revolutionary generation will remain in control even as its members age and
die, relations with the U.S. are normalized, and popular dissatisfaction grows
over the country’s economic performance.