CUBA-FIDEL/EDITORIAL Fidel Castro issues editorial blasting U.S. on 89th birthday

Record ID: 144053

  • Title: CUBA-FIDEL/EDITORIAL Fidel Castro issues editorial blasting U.S. on 89th birthday
  • Date: 13th August 2015
  • Summary: CARDENAS, MATANZAS, CUBA (FILE - NOVEMBER 06, 2003) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** FIDEL CASTRO CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY OF ELIAN GONZALEZ, AFTER CHILD RETURNED TO CUBA FOLLOWING CUSTODY DISPUTE WITH U.S.
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3D4OZ9VLUVQ2VQBB61CKJITA2
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Cuban leader Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday on Thursday (August 13) and published an editorial where he criticised the U.S., assured his people that his country "will never stop fighting for peace and welfare of all human beings."
    The text came out just one day before the official flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. embassy in Havana following the formal restoration of relations between Cuba and the U.S.
    In an editorial published by Cuban state media, Castro hearkened back to key moments in U.S. history.
    "All of us in our youth heard at one time abotu Einstein and, especially, after the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which put an end to the cruel war waged between Japan and the United States. When those bombs were dropped after the war, which was unleashed by the attack on the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese empire was already defeated. The United States, the country whose territory and industries remained outside the war, became the richest and best armed of the Earth, in a world shattered, full of dead, wounded and hungry. Together, the USSR and China had lost over 50 million lives, coupled with enormous material destruction. Almost all the world's gold went to the chests of the United States," he wrote.
    "However, shattering the commitments made at Bretton Woods, the United States, unilaterally declared that they would not honour the obligation to support the Troy ounce of gold to the value of their paper money," he continued.
    Castro also used the editorial to send a message to his supporters.
    "As it expressed very clearly by the Party and the Government of Cuba, in token of goodwill and peace among all countries of this hemisphere and of all peoples that make up the human family, and thus help to ensure the survival of our species in the modest space that belongs to us in the universe, we never stop fighting for peace and welfare of all human beings, regardless of skin colour and country of origin of each person on the planet as well as the full right of everyone to have a religious belief or not," Castro wrote.
    His text comes a day before a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry to raise a U.S. flag at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, to mark the restoration of diplomatic ties after five decades of Cold War hostility.
    Fidel Castro led the revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959, and ran the country for 49 years before he underwent emergency surgery for an undisclosed intestinal ailment in July 2006.
    Castro was born on August 13, 1926, in Biran in eastern Cuba, the son of a Spanish immigrant who became a landowner. His family's farm was the first land Castro ordered confiscated by the state after his revolution.
    He remains an everlasting hero to his supporters.
    "In this room the birth of child Fidel took place on August 13, 1926 at 2AM. He weighed 12 pounds, a significant body weight. That greatness of Fidel demonstrated from birth and throughout his life, not the big Fidel for us but great for all mankind," said Antonio Lopez, a historian who works at the birth home of Fidel Castro.
    Fidel Castro ceded power provisionally to Raul Castro and dropped out of sight and in February 2008 officially resigned on health grounds, allowing his brother to take his place as president but remains politically active through columns such as the one published on Thursday.
    His political influence is still enormous and Raul consults him on major decisions of state.
    Fidel Castro's birthday is not a holiday in Cuba, but will be celebrated with concerts, music and photo exhibitions.
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