Castro: I'll soon die, Communist ideas will remain

Castro: I'll soon die, Communist ideas will remain

Fidel Castro was greeted with acclamation of nearly 1,000 delegates attending the congress, to which foreign media were not invited, Beta is quoting Cuba's state agency ACN.

"Soon I will be 90 years old," said Castro, in what media described as "a short address - his longest public appearance in several years."

"Soon I'll be like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain as proof on this planet that if they are worked at with fervor and dignity, they can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need, and we need to fight without a truce to obtain them," Castro said, according to AP.

"This may be one of the last times I speak in this room. We must tell our brothers in Latin America and the world that the Cuban people will be victorious," he said.

Castro previously appeared in public on April 7 after being absent for nine months, visiting a school in Havana.

However, he is receiving leaders from friendly countries on a regular basis in his home, with state media publishing photos from the meetings.

According to AP, Castro addressed the congress to send a message that the aging revolutionary leaders remain in control after Cuba's rapprochement with the United States and despite the dissatisfaction with the economic situation in the country.