Fidel Castro "Retires"

Unfortunately, El Presidente didn't "retire" to a pine box.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down on Tuesday 49 years after taking power in an armed revolution, closing the book on a Cold War career that turned him into a leftist icon and a tyrant to his foes.

You just know that the students at Berkeley are crying into their cafe lattes right now.

Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery almost 19 months ago, said he would not seek a new term as president or leader of Cuba's armed forces when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.

"[H]e would not seek a new term." Um, yeah, just like Saddam Hussein "won" all of those Iraqi elections with 100% of the overall vote. You had a better chance of seeing Anna Kournikova in Playboy before you saw a fair and honest election in Cuba during the past 50 years.

Cuba's National Assembly, a rubber-stamp legislature, is expected to nominate Castro's brother and designated successor Raul Castro as president. The 76-year-old defense minister has been running the country since emergency intestinal surgery forced his older brother to delegate power on July 31, 2006. (H/T - Yahoo!)

Oh, darn it. I thought for sure that Cuba would see the light and take the first steps toward democracy. /Snark. Of course, America is a democratic republic, and we may elect 71-year old John McCain, so what the Hell do we know?

(The Jawa Report has more here.)