‘I Want The Guy Remembered In His Pajamas’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Karen Branch-Brioso

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 04:10 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.”