In a stunning development, Cuban leader Fidel Castro temporarily ceded presidential power to brother Raúl Castro due to "an intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding" that required "complicated surgery," according to a letter read Monday night on Cuban television.When Fidel Castro sneezes, it's party time on Calle Ocho in the heart of Little Havana in Miami.
The letter, reportedly signed by the Cuban leader at 6:22 p.m. and announced after 9 p.m., said that Castro was assigning his top duties to his brother because Cuba is "threatened by the United States government."
It is the first time that Castro is known to have ceded power, even temporarily, since he seized control of Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959. His regime, one of the most brutally repressive of modern times, also stood as one of the most enduring.
Minutes after the announcement from Havana, news spread like electronic wildfire, with countless hands reaching simultaneously for telephones and television remotes.My guess is that Castro has some form of intestinal cancer and is probably done for, if he isn't already dead. If so, there will be a lot of celebrating -- work should be interesting today with my Cuban exile colleagues -- but other than a lot of celebration, not much is going to change in terms of things such as the embargo or the lifting of travel restrictions to Cuba. They can't just be lifted with the stroke of a pen, and there's nothing that says that Raul Castro isn't going to be as much of a dictator as his brother; he could even be worse.
Cuban Americans celebrated on Calle Ocho and Broward, Hialeah and Sweetwater, a prelude of the pandemonium that could envelope Miami when Castro's death is announced, whenever that may be.
"We just wish him [Castro] a slow and painful death," Lourdes Cambo said, rage and hate filling her eyes. Across the street from Versailles restaurant, Teresita Del Cueto said Castro's time had come.
"It's time for him to pay for all the suffering he has caused, not only to Cuban people but the whole world," del Cueto said. "He separated many families, he caused a lot of suffering. the son of a ---- has run the country as if it was his farm."
While many Miamians popped beers, partied and vented decades of pent-up angst, other exiles who watch Cuba more closely were more cautious.
Ninoska Pérez-Castellón, a commentator on Radio Mambi and stalwart anti-Castro hard-liner, could barely sustain the glee in her voice during an interview. But still, she didn't say IT.
"IT" in Miami is best translated for the layperson in this way: ding dong, the witch is dead.
"I think the moment has arrived, but we can't even savor the moment," said Pérez-Castellón, who interviewed president Bush earlier Monday morning in an exclusive interview. "We don't want to go out and start saying anything because it's not confirmed. It would be irresponsible to fuel that. Maybe they are just buying time in Cuba before taking that step."
Ding dong...
But for a lot of Cubans here in Miami, for the moment it doesn't really matter what happens next. For them, it's personal. It's not so much the dictatorship they despise -- life in Cuba before Castro wasn't an exercise in Jeffersonian democracy -- but it's the way of life that they lost to the communist dictatorship, and they want revenge. Some still harbor the misty idea that they can go back and reclaim their property and pick up where they left off in 1959. And that, if anything, has been what has kept Castro in power all these years. If it hadn't been for the implacable hatred of the man in the hearts of a powerful lobby, we could have ended the embargo years ago, flooded Cuba with McDonald's and Wal-Mart and seen the economy of the country transformed from a showcase of Khrushchev-era starvation into one of the most productive countries in the hemisphere. Communism would be as quaint and as bothersome as it is for the booming economies of China and Vietnam; both countries with whom we managed to make nice after decades of hostilities and war.
Instead, the embargo and emnity kept Castro in power; providing him with an easy scapegoat for all the ills that befell the people of Cuba. No electricity today? Blame the yanquis. A poor sugar crop? It's a CIA plot. A crackdown on dissent? That's because they're in the thrall of the Cuban Mafia in Miami. So if there's anyone that Castro can thank for his longevity as the hemisphere's last full-tilt dictator, it's the folks who were celebrating last night on Calle Ocho.
