Fidel Castro says he didn't expect to turn 87

PanARMENIAN.Net - 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, Aug 14, according to The Associated Press.

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.

It was Castro's first essay in more than four months. He stopped penning his semi-regular columns called "Reflections" last year, and ended a nine-month hiatus in March with a piece urging restraint amid elevated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In Wednesday's essay, Castro also reflected on topics such as the death in March of his friend and close ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as well as the wonders of science.

"The sciences should teach us above all to be humble, given our congenital self-sufficiency," he said. "Thus would we be better prepared to confront and even enjoy the rare privilege of existence."