Defections continue as Castro ponders retirement

He's 80 years old and hasn't been seen in public in 16 months. Is the post-Fidel Castro era of Cuba near? It just might be.

In a letter read on state television, the dictator said:

My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even less 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

That "exceptional era" saw Cuba fall from having one of the highest standards of living in the western hemisphere to one of the lowest.

However, in that letter he referred to Brazilian architect (and Communist) Oscar Niemeyer, who turned 100 two days ago, "I think like Niemeyer that you have to be of consequence up to the end."

Three Cubans, Taras Domitro, Hayna Gutierrez and Miguel Angel Blanco of the The National Ballet of Cuba, decided Sunday night not to wait "up to the end." After performing in Ontario, they crossed into the United States at Buffalo, New York, and defected.

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