Wow… just wow! I didn’t expect this. Castro has been in power longer than I’ve been alive. Nothing is going to change, however, since his brother Raul Castro is in charge now.
Raul isn’t as strong and charismatic as Fidel, so his rule probably won’t be popular and is more likely to be overthrown.
Armando Garcia, 67, of Miami, said replacing Fidel Castro with his brother, Raul, probably won’t result in the kind of sweeping changes urged by those who have fled Cuba since the revolution that swept Castro into power.
“It’s the same dog with a different collar,” said Garcia, a retired electrician. For change to happen, he said, “my people have to changeĀ The young people, they are the hope.”
Adriano Manduca, 79, said he suspected Castro was close to stepping down when he heard the ailing dictator say recently the revolution had been “inflexible” in some respects. Change on the island, he said, will be gradual and only come when a new generation of leadership takes over.
“There will be more food and a little bit more freedom,” he said.
Orlando Gonzalez, 80, was selling Cuban flags for $3 each on the corner of Southwest 8th Street and 36th Avenue. He said he’s had the flags for a long time, waiting for this day to sell them.
“It’s the desire of all the world that this tyranny end,” he said, referring to the Castro regime.
Repeated rumors of Castro’s death over the years helped prepare residents and officials for this day that all knew would eventually come. So far, the reactions were calm, peaceful and not as boisterous as when thousands took to the streets after Castro temporarily handed power to his brother Raul in July 2006.