“Days and nights of continuous work, with hardly any sleep, have caused my health, which has withstood all tests, to fall victim to extreme stress and to be ruined.

“This has caused in me an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that has obliged me to undergo a complicated surgical operation. All the details of this health accident can be seen in X-rays, endoscopies, and filmed material. The operation will force me to take several weeks of rest, away from my responsibilities and duties.

“As our country is threatened in circumstances like this by the government of the United States, I have made the following decision:

“I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba to the second secretary, comrade Raul Castro Ruz.”