A poster of Cuba’s Fidel Castro hangs on the wall of a food market next to plate that reads in Spanish “I’m looking at you” in Havana, Cuba, in this Aug. 13, 2013, file photo.HAVANA – Fidel Castro says he didn’t expect he’d live long enough to turn 87 this week after grave illness forced him from office in 2006, according to an essay carried by official media Wednesday.
In a long, wide-ranging article taking up three pages of Communist Party newspaper Granma, Castro, whose birthday was Tuesday, wrote about being stricken with a near-fatal intestinal ailment on July 26, 2006.
“As soon as I understood that it would be definitive I did not hesitate to cease my charges as president … and I proposed that the person designated to exercise that task proceed immediately to take it up,” the retired leader said, referring to his successor and younger brother Raul Castro.
“I was far from imagining that my life would be prolonged seven more years,” he added.
Castro stepped aside provisionally that year and retired permanently in 2008. He rarely appears in public these days, though photos and video of him are released occasionally through official media.