US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Tuesday that
the decades-old US embargo on Cuba will remain in place despite
Cuban leader Fidel Castro's resignation.
US Deputy Secretary of
State John Negroponte. He said?on February 19, 2008,?that
the decades-old US embargo on Cuba will remain in place despite
Cuban leader Fidel Castro's resignation.
"I don't imagine that happening anytime soon," Negroponte said
in reference to a possible lifting of the embargo.
The US stance came after Castro said Tuesday in a statement
published by the online version of the official daily Granma that
he would not accept the position of president of the Council of
State.
"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent
days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you
that I will not aspire to or accept ... the position of president
of the Council of State and commander in chief," Castro said in the
statement.
Out of public sight since his gastrointestinal surgery in 2006,
Castro said he would continue to "fight as a soldier of ideas" by
writing columns in the Cuban media.
(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2008)
