Castro steps down as leader

Well, that's the end of an era. How long will iot take to normalize relations with the Americans now?

I wonder who his sucessor is gonna be. If it is his brother...at 76 -> How long could he do the job. Something is gonna give. I wonder if the CIA has been working to put one of their boys in power?

no no no no

I can't afford to go to Cuba right now... and i wanted to go before the dirty Americans taint the place!!!!!

depends if the brother will also be named

as head of the army.. thats where the real power will be.

As long as they can keep the economy going, you got little to worry about Newf..

I think the Yanks will be dissapointed.. everyone who wanted out of Cuba

has already left.

keeping the economy going in a communist state and keeping the economy going while being americanized are VERY different though

True, and Raul has always been a bit more flexible in his ideology than Fidel.

this is a sad day

Yeah, I was hoping could outlast another Bush as president.

Still, it's one step in the road to bringing Cuba back from a dictatorship.

i dont know if that's necessarily a good thing

I... applaud Fidel. By stepping down he probably ensured the transition of power in Cuba will be peaceful. Whoever is next in line, I think we can safely assume the country will not fall in disorder.

Personally what I'd *truly* want to see is something entirely new : a truly democratic state with a communist ideology... I know what I'm saying here may sound egocentric since that's likely not exactly what the Cuban people needs the most (though it would be an improvement), but it would be awesome to finally have a state like that hanging around so we could compare the outcome with the overwhelmingly numerous democratic capitalist states. If things go over well I wouldn't even be surprised if we ended up adopting some of the habits of the "new" Cuba over time and get an overall improved system that would use the strenghts of both.

I'm rather hopeful here!

it will be very interesting to see what happens,

on a side not all my friends have been calling and texting to see if i'm ok.. they all know i love fidel... bt i keep telling them.. he stepped down.. he hasn't died

Cubans are dieing to become American citizens,every day.

How long will it take for them to have open and fair elections?

Cubans are dieing to become American citizens,every day.

just the stupid ones