page_title: Cuba under Fidel Castro
section_title: Stepping down: 2006–2008
hierarchical_section_title: Cuba under Fidel Castro / Presidency 1976–2008 / Stepping down: 2006–2008
caption_attribution_description: Poster inviting to a mass for Cuban president Fidel Castro's health, on the Bogotá main cathedral. Photo taken at the main access of the cathedral.
context_page_description: Cuba under Fidel Castro underwent significant economic, political, and social changes. In the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and an associated group of revolutionaries toppled the ruling government of Fulgencio Batista, forcing Batista out of power on 1 January 1959. Castro, who had already been an important figure in Cuban society, went on to serve as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976. He was also the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the Communist state from 1961 to 2011. In 1976, Castro officially became President of the Council of State and President of the Council of Ministers. He retained the title until 2008, when the presidency was transferred to his brother, Raúl Castro, but retained his position of Party First Secretary until 2011.
  Fidel Castro's government was officially atheist from 1962 until 1992. Castro's staunch belief in a communist ideology and his criticisms of other international figures elevated the prominence of his rule. He launched a wide range of economic and social changes.
context_section_description: On July 31, 2006, Castro delegated all his duties to his brother Raúl; the transfer was described as a temporary measure while Fidel recovered from surgery for an "acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding". In February 2007, Raúl announced that Fidel's health was improving and that he was taking part in important issues of government. Later that month, Fidel called into Hugo Chávez's radio show Aló Presidente, and in April, Chávez told press that Castro was "almost totally recovered". On April 21, Castro met Wu Guanzheng of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo, with Chávez visiting in August, and Morales in September. As a comment on Castro's recovery, U.S. President George W. Bush said: "One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away". Hearing about this, the atheist Castro ironically replied: "Now I understand why I survived Bush’s plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me." The quote would subsequently be picked up on by the world's media.
  In a letter dated February 18, 2008, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief at the February 24 National Assembly meetings, stating that his health was a primary reason for his decision, remarking that "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer". On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly of People's Power unanimously voted Raúl as president. Describing his brother as "not substitutable", Raúl proposed that Fidel continue to be consulted on matters of great importance, a motion unanimously approved by the 597 National Assembly members.
caption: Poster advertising a Mass to pray for Castro's health that was posted on a wall in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2007.
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