|
Living in Cuba after Castro
By Staff Writer, Guardian
News Desk. The
Nassau Guardian, December 18, 2006.
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.
Copyright
© 2006 The Nassau Guardian. All rights
reserved.
| 
