Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has rejected President Barack Obama’s efforts to improve relations between the two countries. Castro wrote a column in state-run media, saying, “We do not need the empire to give us any presents.” Castro is 89 years old. He turned over control of the communist island nation to his brother Raul in 2008. Raul is now 84. Fidel Castro was not seen during Obama’s recent three-day visit to Cuba. It was the first visit to that island nation by an American president still in office in almost 90 years. In Havana, Obama said more than 50 years of hostility between the countries had ended. He said “it is time now for us to leave the past behind.” But earlier this week, in a column called “Brother Obama,” Castro wrote: “I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the president of the United States.” Castro wrote about exiled Cubans, or those who fled the island when Castro took power in 1959.