Castro admits he quit as party leader in 2006

FIDEL CASTRO resigned five years ago from all his official positions, including head of Cuba’s Communist Party, a pre-eminent job in the island’s political pantheon that he was thought to still hold.

It was the first time the 84-year-old revolutionary icon has said he no longer heads the Communist Party, which he has led since its creation in 1965. The party website still lists him as first secretary, with his brother President Raul Castro as second secretary.

Castro wrote in an opinion piece that when he got sick in 2006 “I resigned without hesitation from my state and political positions, including first secretary of the party ... and I never tried to exercise those roles again.”

He said that even when his health began to improve he stayed out of state and party affairs “even though everyone, affectionately, continued to refer to me by the same titles”.

Castro’s comments come just weeks ahead of a crucial Communist Party Congress in which it was widely expected that a new party leader would be picked — presumably his brother. The Congress also is tasked with endorsing a series of major economic changes Raul Castro has enacted since taking over the presidency, including opening the island up to limited private enterprise.

The elder Castro stepped down in 2006 due to a serious illness that almost killed him. In an official proclamation on July 31, 2006 he provisionally delegated most of his official duties to his brother.