Socialism can't resolve all ills: Fidel Castro

Charlotte Star (IANS) Sunday 5th February, 2012

Fidel Castro says he now realises it was a mistake to think that socialism can resolve all economic problems.

Castro made the candid admission during the release of a two-volume memoir here, official media said Saturday.

The leader of the Cuban Revolution, 85, who left office in 2006 due to an illness, conversed for six hours with guests at Friday's release of "Guerrillero del Tiempo", written by journalist Katiuska Blanco.

The nearly 1,000-page memoir begins with the first recollections of his childhood and ends in December 1958 on the eve of the guerrilla movement's victory that brought down dictator Batista.

Blanco is also the author of "Todo el Tiempo de los Cedros" (All the Days of the Cedars), an official history of the Castro family (2003).

Castro spoke of the mistake of believing that socialism can solve all economic problems.

He also outlined his deepest opposition to students having to pay for their education, and about international affairs like the dispute over the Falkland Islands.

Fidel Castro did not rule out continuing to write. "I have to do it now because one's memory wears out."

This was Castro's first public appearance since April 2011 when he attended the closure of the 6th Communist Party Congress where his younger brother Raul Castro replaced him as head of the party.

Fidel Castro spoke on a variety of subjects Friday. The event was attended by Cuban intellectuals and Culture Minister Abel Prieto.

In July 2010 Castro made a surprise return to public life after four years of convalescence from the serious illness that forced him to delegate the Cuban presidency to Raul in 2006.

Since then the Cuban leader has participated with irregular frequency in meetings, visits, ceremonies and press conferences with Cuban and foreign reporters.

--IANS/EFE

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