What happens if Fidel Castro dies?

[flamingdem]

http://progreso-weekly.com/ini/index.php/cuba/3498-what-happens-if-fidel-castro-dies?utm_source=What+if+Fidel%3F&utm_campaign=What+Fidel%3F&utm_medium=email

Thumbs up if Fidel looks kind of like your dad (en mi caso si)



By Aurelio Pedroso

HAVANA – Last Saturday, round about noon, a Mexican radio station phoned me to ask if I’d be willing to participate live in some program and comment about the rumors of Fidel Castro’s death or worsening health.

I was asked to do it “right now,” an expression that means little to us Cubans but to the Mexicans means “right now.” I accepted and listened to the guests discuss English actor Boris Karloff until the topic of Cuba was tackled.

What did I tell them?

I said that when they used the word “rumors” they hit it right on the head. Rumors and more rumors that would never be news in serious journalism, though they might be in the world of show business. These rumors were so richly “spiced” that one newspaper cited a Venezuelan doctor who, from Miami, said he had in his hands the exact diagnosis of the Comandante’s illness.

Of course, the statements of this doctor (so well informed that he even gave the flight plans of President Hugo Chávez) were taken up by El Nuevo Herald to augment the expectations of death of someone who has changed the lives of many Herald readers who themselves are ready to go to another world.

The objective of the rumor is not to point to the physical death, which awaits us all and is inevitable. All the great leaders (and Fidel Castro is one, whether you like it or not) have two lives: the biological one and the one that has left its mark in history, the “before” and the “after” that survives in the imagination of the people who can meld history and legend. Fidel may be buried with glee by thousands of people in exile, but he will remain very much alive in the hearts of millions and millions of others, worldwide. more at link

[hedgehog]

1. Well, I suspect they'll either bury or cremate him.

[flamingdem]

3. In Miami they would worry that three days later..

Here's some Cuban American artwork:

[geckosfeet]

2. What do you mean "if"?

The guy is gonna die. He is human.

That said, like it or not his place in history is pretty well established. He will have a lavish state funeral (or not) and be buried with full military pomp and circumstance - in the communist tradition of course.

[Mika]

4. Calle Ocho in "little Havana" will be shut down.

A bunch of half baked "exiles" will be out in the streets waving foreign flags around and vandalizing garbage bins.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Looks as if they're off their meds again!

Good grief.

Wonder if that was the day they went out and mobbed Medea Benjamin's Code Pink demonstration against Luis Posada Carriles.

[center]









[/center]

[flamingdem]

8. Code Pink is so brave! They were probably getting things thrown at them

ouch!! I really do think they thought this was it for Fidel, lol, because he hadn't done his Reflections column since June. That Venezuelan doctor really got them!

[LTR]

5. He'll rule Cuba from the grave

Castro ain't gonna let a little thing like death interfere.

[joshcryer]

6. They can't keep pushing rumors of his death?

[Bacchus4.0]

9. my dad doesn't look like a senile Amishman

here is the answer the article delivers:

"One of the most frequent questions is what will happen after Fidel’s death. The answer they get from most people is “nothing.” The country will go on, I add, with more changes, beginning with those initiated during Fidel’s lifetime and approved by him. Wasn’t it he who, while still at the head of the government, urged Cubans to change everything that needed to be changed?"


I think that is correct in the short term. In the longer term Cuba will likely evolve into something similar to most of the rest of Latin America economically and politically. I suspect Cuba will do better economically than most countries in the region once they make the transition. Look for it to be a retirement hotspot for Americans eventually.

I think I'll stick to Colombia, Peru, or Ecuador.