HAVANA, Dec 18: Cuba’s ailing leader Fidel Castro, 81, has made it abundantly clear for the first time that he may never come back to public life, even if he remains a powerful force behind the scenes.

In a letter read out on state television on Monday, Castro confirmed what many suspected for months, and also threw the spotlight on a rising new generation of communist leadership without naming interim President Raul Castro.

“My basic duty is not to cling to (public) office, much less to block the rise of younger people, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived,” wrote Fidel Castro, who stepped aside from the presidency “temporarily” 17 months ago after undergoing major intestinal surgery.

Raul Castro, 76, who has served as interim leader since July 31, 2006, is Cuba’s defence chief and number two in the Americas’ only one-party communist state.

The United States never planned for a communist Cuba after Castro, always predicting the regime would implode without Fidel.

Now, Washington is confronted with the potential slap in the face of yet another passing of the communist regime’s baton right under its nose.

In his letter, read on the news, Fidel Castro did not name anyone who might follow Raul Castro. Top regime figures decades younger than the Castro brothers include Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

Fidel Castro has not been seen since his surgery other than in official videos on television, but opinion pieces of his on global affairs have been published in Cuba’s newspapers since March.

Questions about his political future arose after he was nominated as a candidate to the National Assembly earlier this month, making him officially eligible to resume the presidency should he be elected to the assembly in January.

From the ranks of the nominees for Cuba’s national and provincial assemblies, 614 lawmakers will be elected in January and they will choose the Council of State. The council’s president serves as head of Cuba’s one-party government.

If Fidel Castro had not been nominated to the assembly, that could have made it appear likely that Raul Castro — who was also re-nominated — would formally take over Cuba’s presidency next year.

Now Cuba-watchers say it is possible Fidel Castro might be elected an assembly deputy, but then choose not to run for re-election to the Council of State. That could open the way for Raul to ascend possibly with a new-generation deputy.

Voting for the presidency is set to be held no later than March 5, 2008.

Dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque said she was not expecting change.

“If he was not interested in reassuming his job (as president) he would not have been a candidate,” she said.—AFP