To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.

Fidel Castro Ruz

February 18, 2008

That’s taken from a longer message from Cuba’s Commander in Chief on the Granma Internacional website.

So, after 50 years, 81-year old Fidel Castro is stepping down. It’s expected that his younger brother, Raul Castro (he’s 76, by the way), will be nominated by the National Assembly his successor as president.

George W. Bush talked about it while traveling in Rwanda and asked “what does this mean for the people in Cuba?” He views it as a “period of tradition” and urges the international community to world with the Cuban people to build the institutions of democracy. (He also made a comment about “staged elections” by “the Castro bothers”, which I made me giggle given the election fiasco a few years ago in Florida, a state run by George W.’s brother at the time.)

Hopefully, this change bodes well for the people of Cuba.