Fidel Castro Bids Farewell in 'Last Speech' to Communist Party Congress Al Jazeera
go to original April 24, 2016

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s longtime former president, has delivered a farewell speech to the Communist party Congress in the capital, Havana, and called for safeguarding communist ideals.

The leader of the 1959 revolution, which overthrew the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, emerged from seclusion on Tuesday to muse about death and provide encouragement to his followers in a rare speech.

"Soon I will be 90 years old," he said. "Soon I will be like all the rest. Everybody's turn comes," Castro, whose birthday is August 13, told 1,300 party activists gathered at a Havana convention centre where he delivered countless, hours-long speeches during his rule.

Castro held power for nearly five decades before ill health led him to make way for his brother Raul Castro, 84, in 2006.

"Perhaps this will be one of the last times I speak in this room," said Castro, sporting a blue tracksuit jacket, glasses and wispy grey beard.

"The ideas of Cuban Communists will remain," he said, "as proof that on this planet, if you work hard and with dignity, you can produce the material and cultural goods human beings need."

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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