‘I Think It’s Good’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Keith Morelli

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 03:30 PM

Elizabeth Rodriguez, at a tender age of 21, isn’t much into government—here in the U.S. or in Cuba, where her parents emigrated from. She hadn’t heard about the news today that Fidel Castro had stepped down, a move that has Cubans there and here abuzz.

The La Teresita hostess says she has relatives in Cuba still and she keeps in touch with them. She was born here and is a U.S. citizen.

“I think it’s good” that Castro has abdicated, she says. “But I don’t really follow politics.”

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‘They Will Say He Is Dead’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Keith Morelli

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 03:28 PM

Omar Fonseca was taking a much needed break just after the lunch hour at La Teresita on Columbus Drive in West Tampa this afternoon. He mostly spoke in Spanish about the news from Cuba this morning that Fidel Castro is stepping down.

But this he did say in English: “The news is very good today.”

Fonseca says he came to the U.S. in 1994 on a raft from Cuba. The 37-year-old Tampa man follows closely the happenings in Cuba and says he has a theory.

Castro actually died at 1:30 p.m. on July 31, 2006. The news issued today, “is the first step they are making to tell the people he is dead,” Fonseca says through an interpreter. “It’s very important to the Cuban government that the Castros keep the power.”

Fidel Castro nearly two years ago relinquished power to his younger brother Raul.

“In three to four months, they will say he (Fidel Castro) is dead,” Fonseca says.

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McCollum Calls Castro’s Reign ‘Tragic’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 03:24 PM

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has this to say about the resignation of Fidel Castro:

“The reign of Fidel Castro has been marked by the efforts of a man to hijack the government of his country and abuse those resources for his own personal agenda and gain. That he promised so much to his people and broke not only his word, but also the hopes, dreams and lives of several generations, is tragic, even criminal in nature. We have watched with deep sorrow how the people of Cuba were betrayed and we eagerly anticipate the day when Cuba will be welcomed back into the society of free nations.

“I hope and pray that the people of Cuba will act on the resignation of Fidel Castro to force a return to truly free elections, multiple political parties, a free press, and the release of political prisoners.”

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‘I Want The Guy Remembered In His Pajamas’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Karen Branch-Brioso

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 03:10 PM

Tampa lawyer Ralph Fernandez got the news at 4:30 a.m. today.

Ex-political prisoner Eugenio Llamero didn’t even bother to deliver the news of Fidel Castro’s resignation.

Instead, Llamero’s wake-up call to Fernandez began this way: “Are you going to file it in the morning?”

Fernandez long has advocated that federal authorities indict Castro for murder in connection with the 1996 deaths of four Brothers to the Rescue pilots who were shot down by a Cuban MiG pilot. He said the feds wouldn’t indict Castro because of a “head-of-state” exception.

Fernandez said he wants to try again – now that Castro no longer is a head of state.

The news of Castro relinquishing power – when Fernandez finally got it – heartened him.

“Is it better for Cuba? Yes. It’s an opening. It’s baby steps,” Fernandez says as he prepares to go in for lunch at Arco Iris restaurant in West Tampa.

He’s happy, too, that the world’s view of Castro’s last moments in power are of a feeble man: “I want the guy remembered in his pajamas.”

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‘He’s Got To Be Dead Or Very Close To It’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 02:59 PM

Restaurant owner Irelio Carvajal has only one explanation for today’s announcement of Fidel Castro’s resignation. “He’s got to be dead or very close to it.”

He’s a dictator who said he would control Cuba for life, Carvajal says. He would never willingly give up power. But the country won’t tell people the truth because there would be riots.

“The frustration of the people is extreme,” says Carvajal, who visited his native land three years ago. Carvajal came to Tampa when he was 12 as part of the Mariel boatlift. Now 40, he owns Black Beans restaurant in Town ‘N Country.

The truth about Castro will come out, he says. It could be two months. It could be two years. “You never know in a country like that. The press is not free. Everything is controlled.” But eventually the news will get out.

He also predicts some freedom will come for business and travel. “It has to ... because of pressure from the people. They will demand it.”

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