‘They Will Say He Is Dead’

Posted Feb 19, 2008 by Keith Morelli

Updated Feb 19, 2008 at 04:28 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.