Fidel Castro Interview: He Was 'at Death's Door' During Illness

(Aug. 31) -- Fidel Castro says his long illness nearly killed him, and it forced him to turn over power to his brother Raul in 2008.

In his first interview on the subject, the former leader of Cuba said he was "at death's door" during a four-year illness that he refuses to identify but is widely believed to be diverticulitis, an intestinal inflammation.

In this photo released by the state media Cubadebate web site, Fidel Castro attends a meeting.

Cubadebate / AP

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, here at a meeting with scientists in Havana on Monday, said he hoped "the world would stop" during his four-year illness.

"Lying out there on that [sick] bed, I could only look around me, ignorant to all those machines," he told Mexico's La Jornada. "I didn't know how long the torment would last, and the only thing I hoped is that the world would stop."

In a second interview, Castro said he was responsible for his government's brutal campaign against gay Cubans during the revolution in the 1960s and '70s, in which the government rounded up openly homosexual men and sent them to labor camps.

He said he has no personal prejudice against gays. "There were moments of great injustice," he said. "If anyone is responsible, it's me."

Homosexual acts were decriminalized in 1979, and the Cuban government now offers sex-change operations for free, according to the La Jornada report.

Asked whether he will become a public figure again, Castro said he "still has things to do."

Read the full interview in La Jornada (in Spanish only).