Fidel Castro “retiring” as Cuba’s dictator in chief isn’t the end of the story. Nothing has changed, and chances are better than even that they won’t in the immediate future.

Next up is the official naming of the successor.

Cuba’s rubber-stamp National Assembly will meet on Sunday to name retiring Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s successor, and few people are placing bets on anyone other than his brother Raul Castro.

[...]

The National Assembly’s 614 legislative deputies, elected last month, will convene on Sunday morning to approve a list of the 31 members of the Council of State, Cuba’s top executive body headed by the president or head of state, a first vice president and five more second-tier vice presidents.

In theory, the presidency could go to a younger leader, such as Vice President Carlos Lage, the architect of limited reforms that opened Cuba to foreign investment and tourism and allowed small private entrepreneurs to emerge in the 1990s crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But Cuba watchers see that as too bold a move and expect Lage, 56, to become deputy leader of the country as first vice president with a hands-on role in day-to-day governing.

I have no doubt that this is probably the way things will play out. However, Scott Ott has insider information on a (slightly) different direction that could be taken.

As Cuban President Fidel Castro announced today he would end his half-century of totalitarian rule, sources close to Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama tried to tamp down speculation that they were on “the short list” of potential replacements for the ailing Communist dictator.

[...]

“A Clinton-Obama ticket,” said one unnamed Cuba scholar, “combines the power and the glory that was Fidel Castro, with the unshakable commitment to collectivism, controlled economies, and virulent resistance to the United States as a superpower.”

Heh.

It seems like every second or third post that’s come across the feed reader has the news of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as it’s subject. Here is a small roundup.

Blogs

The Jawa Report:

In December 2007, a Cuban television news anchor read a letter reportedly written by Fidel Castro promising he would not “cling to office” or be an impediment to rising young leaders.”Impediment” he calls it. Castro rose to overlordship of Cuba largely through imprisoning and murdering any “rising young leaders” who got in his way.

Captain’s Quarters:

Raul Castro will almost certainly take over the family business. If Fidel died, the machinery of the Cuban state might have decided to take another direction, but Fidel remains alive and a threat. No one in the Cuban government will cross the Castros as long as Fidel lives, retired or not. Therefore, the government direction and policy won’t change a bit, and the US will face the same issues it always has with Fidel’s rule. Cuba will simply be more of the same.

Blue Crab Boulevard:

Some will want to use this non-change as a reason to ease up on Cuba – that would be the wrong move. Until the jails are emptied and the Cuban people are really free, there is no reason to make any accommodations with Castro’s hand picked successor. None at all.

American Thinker (Rick Moran):

It is a mystery to most of us who are rational why this man captured the souls of so many leftists in America and elsewhere all these years. Like most liberals, the guy could talk your ears off without saying much of anything. And perhaps Castro gave them a safe outlet for their anti-American feelings.

Whatever the reason, historians 100 years from now will look back and marvel at the left’s utter moral bankruptcy and stupidity in placing Castro on such a pedestal.

Gina Cobb:

For now, however, Communism remains in Cuba — the same failed social, economic and political system that continues to bring misery to people in Cuba and wherever it has been tried on earth.

For a system of government that is supposed to be egalitarian, Communism puts far too much power in the hands of the one or the few. It seems nice in theory, but it’s tyrranical and cruel when put into practice.

Of course the blog to go to for information and reaction is Babalu Blog. As of this writing they have at least a dozen posts. To get a real sense of what this news means to the Cubans in America, take time to read the posts and the comments there.

News Reports

AFP:

The United States said Tuesday it had no plans to lift the decades-old embargo on Cuba “anytime soon” even after its longtime nemesis Fidel Castro resigned as president.

By quitting with little fanfare, the ailing 81-year-old Castro may have marked an anti-climactic end to an era that began in the Cold War, but he has left a deep thorn in Washington’s side that may prove hard to remove.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte indicated as much when, asked by reporters if Washington planned to lift sanctions, he stated: “I don’t imagine that happening anytime soon.”

The Hill:

Capitol Hill greeted the news of Fidel Castro’s resignation Tuesday with muted cautiousness, with several members warning that the long-expected ascension of Castro’s brother Raul is no cause to celebrate.

“Just because the dictator is now named Raul instead of Fidel, it doesn’t mean that the regime’s repressive rule will automatically change,” said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a child of Cuban immigrants and member of the Cuba Democracy Caucus and Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

AP:

Republican John McCain underscored that “freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand” despite Castro’s resignation.

“We must press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections,” the Arizona senator said in a statement.

“Cuba’s transition to democracy is inevitable; it is a matter of when not if. With the resignation of Fidel Castro, the Cuban people have an opportunity to move forward and continue pushing for the moment that they will truly be free. America can and should help hasten the sparking of freedom in Cuba. The Cuban people have waited long enough.”

Fox News:

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami-area Republican who was born in Havana, called for Castro’s indictment and said his resignation was irrelevant because his regime had already “done great harm to the suffering Cuban people.”

“It matters nothing at all whether Fidel, Raul or any other thug is named head of anything in Cuba,” she said. “What the people want is freedom to vote in multiparty elections that are internationally supervised and freedom to express their dissent from the oppressive regime. The Communist machinery is enslaving them so it doesn’t matter who the thug of the moment will be.”

He hasn’t been seen publicly in over a year, ceding power to his brother Raul in July of 2006. Now it has been officially announced that Fidel Castro is stepping aside permanently.

An ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when the new parliament meets Sunday.

“I will not aspire to nor accept — I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept — the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief,” read a letter signed by Castro published early Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma.

President Bush is on TV from Rwanda talking about the situation. I caught just a part, where he made a statement saying that many in the international community will call for stability, but that instead we should hope for free and fair elections and the beginnings of institutions that can bring about democracy.

More later.

Not Osama

Not President “Tom”

This evening it’s F. “Bernie” Castro, and it looks like he’s wearing the same bionic track suit he was wearing over a year ago. AP has the story. Val is watching at Babalu Blog.

I had planned to post more today. I should have had the time. It just didn’t work out that way.

Of course the big news is the cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. To discribe this as fragile would be overstating reality.

Also in the Mid East is the story of the two FOX-TV journalists kidnapped in Gaza. Our prayers go out for their safe and quick return.

Cuban Television is showing video of Fidel Castro meeting in his sick room with Hugo Chavez.

There are others as well. I guess there’s always tomorrow.

Forgive me if I quote the whole story, but this is the shortest AP piece I’ve ever seen:

HAVANA – Raul Castro made his first public appearance since being named Cuba’s provisional president, greeting Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez at the airport Sunday.

I’m guessing that further details will be forthcoming.

I guess he looks alive. He’s probably getting ready to take a little jog on his 80th birthday. The picture is just ripe for some fisking, photoshopping (if it hasn’t been already) or captioning (leave yours in the comments). Here’s the story:

The first photographs of Fidel Castro since his illness two weeks ago were published Sunday in Cuba’s Communist Youth newspaper with a statement by the Cuban leader saying on his 80th birthday “I feel very happy.”

After his jog he can celebrate with friends.

Meanwhile, his close friend and political ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said Saturday that he would visit the Cuban leader.

“Tomorrow I will be with Fidel celebrating his 80th birthday,” Chavez said at a news conference in Caracas after declaring his candidacy for re-election in December.

“I’ll take him a nice gift, a good cake, and we’ll be celebrating the 80 years of this great figure of America and our history,” Chavez said.

But the real story is this:

“Sadly, Granma’s optimism of Fidel Castro’s health is in sharp contrast to political prisoners who are rotting in Cuban prisons for simply disagreeing (with him),” said Alfredo Mesa, spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation. “Dead or alive, change in Cuba must come now. The era of Fidel Castro must end.“

The sooner the better.

UPDATE: Val has a birthday “wish” for him as well.

UPDATE II: Blue Crab Boulevard says,

In what I consider unusual for AP (or any of the wire services these days) the copy of the photo they show admits that they cannot vouch for the accuracy of the claims of when the photo was actually taken. (Is it possible the harsh criticism from bloggers is beginning to have an effect? One can dream).” [Take a look at the photo he "discovered" as well. Jim]

Captain Ed, in a related post, is still wondering Where’s Raul-do, Day 13: The Natives Are Restless:

Today is Fidel’s birthday, usually a cause for national celebration. It would be inconceivable that Raul would not publicly celebrate his brother’s birthday if Raul was capable of doing so. If he does not show up with a birthday cake somewhere in Havana and give a public show of support for his brother, Cubans will know that the jig is up.

And all of the secret police officers on the island will not keep them quiet after that — which is exactly what the Cuban government fears.

UPDATE III: The Florida Masochist asks, “How does a communist in a classless society get such obviously capitalist clothing?”

Welcome to Captain’s Quarters and Florida Masochist readers. Thanks for the links gentleman.

UPDATE IV: The Real Cuba has side by side “before and after” pics. Are the current official offerings altered. Take a look and be the judge.

CNN is reporting this from the U.S. State Dept.:

The prolonged disappearance of Fidel Castro from public view indicates that the Cuban president is confronting “serious” health problems, a senior U.S. State Department official said Friday.

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, briefing reporters, also said he believes that Castro’s attempt to turn over power to his brother, Raul, is doomed to fail.

The waiting continues.

The story of an obscure Cuban legend is being reported in today’s Miami Herald:

News of Fidel Castro’s illness has renewed interest in an obscure legend involving Cuba’s patron saint and her prediction to a priest 150 years ago that one day Cubans would be enslaved by a bearded young leader — who then dies during the fourth decade of his reign.

[...]

The legend, with some variations, begins in the 1850s and goes something like this:

A Spanish priest, San Antonio María Claret, had been sent to Cuba to become archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, coincidentally Castro’s home province. One day, while riding his horse through the province’s majestic Sierra Maestra — also coincidentally Castro’s mountainous rebel stronghold in the mid-1950s — La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre appeared to him in a vision, he later told his congregation.

She relayed to him the future of Cuba in the hands of a leader that resembled Castro, but years before his birth in 1926, he said. He will have long hair, a beard, wear a uniform and carry weapons. He’ll have followers, who will look just like him.

Claret claimed the virgin told him the young man would spend a short time committing acts that would violate God’s commandments. There would be turmoil and the spilling of blood. This could be interpreted as the 1959 overthrow by the rebel leader of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

He would promise reforms to the Cuban people, who would welcome him with great love and fervor. But he would eventually betray, imprison and divide them and inflict them with great pain and heartache.

Claret said the virgin told him the young man would rule for four decades, and Cuba would be devastated during this period. In time, the young man would grow old. He would die and then the skies would become clear and blue over Cuba, freeing it it from the darkness that entrapped it.

Interesting.

The drink that comforteth the brain and heart and helpeth digestion. ~ Sir Francis Bacon

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) There’s Gotta Be Irony In Here Somewhere — “Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has told an interviewer that he wants German troops in any international force protecting the Jewish state.”

Iowa Voice (Brian) Senate Dems Block Minimum Wage Bill — “Over the next day or so, they’re going to be in the news, patting themselves on the back for “screwing the rich”. But in reality, the only one who got screwed here was the poor. The rich already pay those taxes, so not getting them cut isn’t going to affect them in the least.”

Blue Crab Boulevard Another Day Of Waiting For Fidel — “Weird pronouncements are coming from Cuba, the US government admits they really do not know what is going on, either and we’ll just have to wait. Hard, isn’t it? Cuban government spokesmen are warning the the communist party will “defend the revolution”. Now that sounds almost as if it were a backhanded admission that Castro will not come back to power, but we’ll have to see.”

Babalu Blog (Val Prieto) Pa’ la calle! — “I would have given anything to have seen the expression on the faces of all of these reporters, most of whom have showered fidel castro and la revolucion with praise and adulation for so many years. Their utter shock! Their utter dismay! How could the glorious revolution turn its back on such staunch supporters!”

The Strata-Sphere (A.J. Strata) Petulent Democrats — “Family owned small businesses once again take a hit from Democrats who cannot abide anyone succeeding in life and passing the fruits of their efforts to their children. Their petulance has blocked a compromise on the infamous death tax where greedy bureacrats take the hard earned poperty built over a lifetime for their own wasteful uses.”

To understand why those of us who are not Cuban, but are still following with interest the current situation in Cuba, a letter from the Communist Party (USA) [no link] says it all:

Dear Comrade Fidel Castro,

We wish to extend to you and the Cuban people our very best wishes for a speedy recovery from your recent surgery. We hope you will be able to quickly resume your invaluable work in the struggle for world peace, justice and equality. [Just not for your own people.]

We also want to assure you that we will remain steadfast in our work to oppose the dangerous provocations coming out of the Bush White House and the extreme right-wing Republicans in Congress. You have our full solidarity in exposing and fighting their vicious plans to remake Cuba and overthrow the democratic will of the Cuban people. [I must have missed those free elections.]

The ugly demonstrations in Miami are a disgrace, egged on by the Bush administration, and not representative of the true general feelings of the majority of the American people. The truth is that overwhelmingly, most people, regardless of their political feelings, reject such anti-human, uncivilized and repulsive behavior. [Of course they are nothing in comparison to the anti-human, uncivilized and repulsive behavior you've engaged in for nearly 50 years.]

When you see who is wishing him well, you can understand why those who love freedom and democracy are hoping for his quick and permanent exit from world affairs.

Reading some of the coverage concerning Fidel Castro last night and today I was reminded of this story:

A man went away on vacation and left his cat with his brother. Several days later he called home and asked, “how is my cat?”

After a pause the man’s brother hesitatingly tells him, “I’m sorry, but your cat has died.”

“That’s no way to break news like that. Couldn’t you have broken the news gently?” He asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” the cat owner replied, “you could have said the cat was up on the roof and wouldn’t come down. When I called again later you could say something like, ‘the cat fell off the roof, but you took it to the vet who is doing everything he can’. Then you could have told me that the cat didn’t make it.”

“So, how’s mom?”

The brother told him, “She’s up on the roof and won’t come down.”

Via RedState:

Redstate is hearing from congressional sources that it has become apparent that the statement yesterday came after the surgery. This may indicate that Castro is in grave condition or is already dead.

So, is Castro on the roof?