Havana ? Fidel Castro said Thursday he doubts he’ll make it to the end of Barack Obama’s four-year term and instructed Cuban officials to start making their decisions without taking him into account.

In an online column titled “Reflections of Comrade Fidel,” the 82-year-old Cuban leader suggested his days are numbered, saying Cuban officials “shouldn’t feel bound by my occasional Reflections, my state of health or my death.”

“I have had the rare privilege of observing events over such a long time. I receive information and meditate calmly on those events,” he wrote. “I expect I won’t enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama’s first presidential term has ended.”

He didn’t elaborate, but the lines had the ring of a farewell, and Castro suggested he was on his way out.