Ailing leader Fidel Castro said in a letter read on state television Dec. 17 that he does not intend to cling to power forever or stand in the way of a younger generation, but invoked the example of Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, who is still working at 100.

"My duty is not to cling to positions, or to obstruct the path of younger people, but to share experiences and ideas whose modest worth comes from the exceptional era in which I lived," Castro wrote.

"I think like Niemeyer that you have to be of consequence to the end," Castro wrote, referring to the architect who turned 100 Dec. 15.