Just three weeks after the Bush Administration released a report stating that the US would work to bring democracy to Cuba in the event of Fidel Castro's death or incapacitation, the Cuban dictator (pictured left) announced July 31, through a letter on Cuban television, that he was temporarily relinquishing his duties as president and handing over power to his brother, Raul Castro (pictured right), owing to an intestinal crisis and surgery that would leave him unable to perform his duties as president for several weeks.