Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and former US President Jimmy Carter talk during a meeting in Havana March 30, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

AGING LEADERSHIP

After taking power in the 1959 revolution he led, Fidel Castro, 84, ruled for 49 years before resigning the presidency in 2008. Raul Castro, 79, was his defense minister for all that time and replaced him as president.

Fidel Castro gave his support for the reforms in a front page column in the Communist party newspaper Granma, saying he had listened in on meetings on Sunday and was impressed.

"The new generation is called to rectify and change without hesitation all that must be rectified and changed, and to continue demonstrating that socialism is also the art of making the impossible happen," he said.

He described "the impossible" as "building and bringing about the revolution of the poor, by the poor and for the poor.

Military vehicles drive during a military parade for the 50th anniversaries of the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion and the declaration of Cuban socialism in Havana April 16, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]