Living in Cuba after Castro

Living in Cuba after Castro
By STAFF WRITER, Guardian News Desk

Life after Castro. What will happen in Cuba? That is the prevalent
question being asked by people in Santiago de Cuba, in Miami, Fla, in
Nassau, Bahamas and in many cities and countries around the world. Fidel
Castro has been in power and the president of Cuba for longer than many
people asking the questions have been alive and he is the only power
broker in Cuba they know.

Castro's power was taking hold in Cuba just about the time John F
Kennedy was taking over the presidency of the United States ö following
the 1959 Cuban revolution and the US presidential elections ö and 46
years later he is still being railed against and threatened by the US
Government. He has survived the administrations of eight American
presidents and has outlived three of those who would have wished to take
him out: Kennedy, Lynden Johnson and Richard Nixon.

But at long last, the end of Castro's days might indeed be numbered,
although he has been reported dead many times over the years and even
more often since the July abdominal surgery, which led to him handing
over power temporarily to his brother Raul Castro, and which has kept
him from public view except for a few photographs in which Venezuela's
president Hugo Chavez also appeared. He was missing from the Dec 2
official celebrations to mark his 80th birthday.

In South Florida the authorities expect radical changes and are bracing
for massive migration numbers from Cuba, similar to that of the 1980s
Mariel Boat Lift, when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the seas in
whatever could float in efforts to escape the island.

On Friday the largest US congressional delegation to visit the island
arrived for three days of talks with government leaders, foreign
diplomats and others, in what some hope could be a first step toward
normalizing relations with Cuba.

The 10-member bipartisan delegation was led by Representatives William
Delahunt, (D-Mass.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) who have criticized the
four-decade economic embargo against Cuba.

"We sense this is an important time, and we hope to be able to meet with
officials here and others and hopefully launch a new era in US-Cuba
relations," Saturday's Sun Sentinel reported Flake as saying Friday
afternoon, as the group arrived at the Hotel Nacional.

Earlier this year a report released by the US Presidential Commission
for Assistance to a free Cuba, indicated that $80 million would be
available to help pro-democracy leaders after the demise of Castro. The
US does not favor a planned succession from Fidel to 75-year-old Raul.

According to the most recent Gallup Poll, 67 per cent of a targeted
group of Americans favored the re-establishment of diplomatic relations
with the communist Island while 27 per cent opposed the move. The Gallup
News service says that over the past 32 years, a majority of Americans
have consistently said they support establishing diplomatic ties with
Cuba, with the exception of one poll conducted in 1996.

The Bahamas solidified its diplomatic ties with Cuba in July, opening an
Embassy in Havana with Carlton Wright as the Ambassador. At the time
Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell said that there is considerable demand
for consular and diplomatic services and that the embassy is expected to
meet that demand.

Cuba's presence in The Bahamas was also upgraded from Consulate to
Embassy with former Consul General Felix Wilson being named to the post
of Ambassador.

http://www.thenassauguardian.net/national_local/315266825108422.php