HAVANA (Reuters) - Fidel Castro may have retired as Cuban president last week after 49 years in power, but he is still calling some shots.
Castro said in an article published on Friday that it washis idea to promote two three-star generals to the country'stop leadership under his younger brother and successor aspresident, Raul Castro.
They were his first comments since the younger Castrobecame Cuba's new president on Sunday and appeared to be aimedat dismissing reports of a rift between the brothers or amilitarization of the government under Raul Castro.
Fidel Castro, 81, made clear he retains no formal positionin government and said his brother, aged 76, has "all the legaland constitutional power and prerogatives" to run Cuba.
Castro, who has not appeared in public since falling ill 19month ago, said his brother and successor consulted him onnaming hard-line Communist Party ideologue Jose Ramon MachadoVentura as deputy leader as well as other appointments to thegoverning Council of State.
"It was also my decision to ask the nominating committee toinclude Leopoldo Cintra Frias and Alvaro Lopez Miera on thelist for the Council of State," Fidel Castro said.
Lopez Miera, 64, is army chief of staff and Cintra Frias,66, is commander of Cuba's Western Army.
Both the generals fought in Angola and have been loyalallies of the Castros since joined their guerrilla movement atthe age of 15. They were among several key appointments thatsignalled an increased role of the military in Raul Castro'sgoverning team.
"The chess board pointed to these alternatives. This wasnot the fruit of Raul's supposed militaristic tendencies, norwas it about generations or parties fighting with bared teethover power," Castro wrote.
Castro's critics, mainly among the Cuban exile community inthe United States, see the change of leaders in Cuba as anundemocratic charade, with the ailing Fidel Castro stillpulling the strings from behind the scenes.
They hoped Cuba's one-party communist state would collapsewhen he was rushed to emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006for an undisclosed illness and delegated power to his brother.
"For many, our country was a boiler full of steam and aboutto explode," Castro wrote, adding that their "illusions" havecome undone.
"You can now hear the howls of wolves trapped by theirtails," he wrote. "They are so rabid over the election ofMachadito as first vice president."
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Kieran Murray)