I'm sure this shall have been blogged by now, but I want to offer my own take. Fidel Castro has, apparently, officially announced his resignation. CNN.com reports.
And lo, the streets of Havana did not open up to swallow the infidel. Nor did swarms of locusts descend upon the Castro government to devour the flesh of his lackeys. Their eyes did not bleed, their abdomens did not rip open and their bowels did not gush upon the potter's ground.
Cuba's leaders plan to elect a president within days. Castro's brother, Raúl, the country's defense minister, has been named publicly as his successor.
Raúl has been running Cuba in his elder brother's stead ever since the Cuban dictator was forced by illness and age to vacate the seat of power. Castro's brother simply picked up the reigns and kept things running as usual. What else would have happened? Given the actual nature of the government, only business as usual. There shall be no upheaval, no open revolt, no overthrow of a suddenly crippled Castro regime now that Fidel is stepping down.
One of the silliest myths ever promoted about Castro's Cuba is the one in which everything becomes All Better -- that the government he founded would completely collapse without his iron fist to prop it up. Reality, however, is ever there to keep our wildest fantasies in check. Not that enough people heed its warnings, of course, but it's there nonetheless.
So no, the skies are not suddenly blacked out with immense flocks of chirping birds arriving to celebrate the fall of Castro's government. Elian Gonzales is not breaking free from the shackles of his father's home to storm the port of Miami. And disgruntled Cuban refugees shall have to continue waiting for their dream to be fulfilled.