As he turns 90, Castro thanks Cubans, blasts US

By Neysi Hernández

HAVANA (AA) ­– Fidel Castro celebrated his 90th birthday by praising the Cuban people and issuing a stinging rebuke of U.S. President Barack Obama in a lengthy letter published Saturday.

After writing about his childhood and the death of his father, the former Cuban president wrote about the importance of education and how to instill core values from childhood.

He then heaped thanks on the Cuban people for their support he said allows him to continue his work.

"I want you to express my deepest gratitude for the signs of respect, greetings and gifts I have received in these days, that give me strength to reciprocate with ideas that I will send to party militants and relevant agencies," he wrote in the state-run Granma newspaper.

But the leader of the country’s revolution who steeped down a decade ago, did not pass up the chance to lash out at his long-time nemesis from the north, criticizing the use of nuclear weapons and Obama for a speech in which he did not apologize to Japan, during a trip there in May, for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

"I believe that the speech lacked the statue of the U.S. president when he visited Japan and lacked words to apologize for the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima, although they knew the effects of the bomb,” Castro wrote. “That's why you have to hammer on the need to preserve peace and that no power will take the right to kill millions of people.”

Cuba has planned muted celebrations for Castro’s birthday, very different from the fanfare that helped greet the revolutionary when he turned 80.

A number of activities are planned, however, including small concerts, special publications and cultural galas Saturday night.

Venezuelan leftist President Nicolas Maduro was seeing arriving in Cuba on Saturday and the presidents of Nicaragua, China and Bolivia extended their congratulations to Castro.