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CUBA'S FIDEL CASTRO UNDERGOES SURGERY, DELEGATES POWER TEMPORARILY; INTERNATIONAL TENSIONS BUILD.

Article Excerpt
After undergoing abdominal surgery for an undisclosed but complicated illness, Cuban President Fidel Castro delegated power temporarily to other officials. He enumerated the specifics of the temporary transfer in a post-surgery announcement on July 31, prefaced by a brief recap of events leading to the need for the surgery. Castro said he had expended enormous energy during his recent trip to Cordoba, Argentina, to participate in the MERCOSUR meetings and in his hurried return to Cuba to attend the celebration of the 53rd anniversary of the attacks on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks, the wellsprings of the Cuban Revolution. The stress of it all, he said, "caused an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obliged me to undergo a complicated surgical operation."

The delegations, verbatim

He then said, in the announcement published in the Cuban paper Juventud Rebelde, "As our country finds itself threatened in circumstances like this by the government of the United States, I have made the following decisions:

1. I delegate temporarily my functions as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) to the Second Secretary, companero Raul Castro Ruz.

2. I delegate temporarily my functions as Commander in Chief of the heroic Revolutionary Armed Forces to the mentioned companero General of the Army Raul Castro Ruz.

3. I delegate temporarily my functions as President of the Council of State and of the Government of the Republic of Cuba to First Vice President companero Raul Castro Ruz.

4. I delegate temporarily my functions as principal driver of the National and International Program of Public Health to member of the Buro Politica and Minister of Public Health companero Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera.

5. I delegate temporarily my functions as principal driver of the National and International Program of Education to companeros...

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