Fidel Castro dies: How Cubans (and the rest of Latin America) reacted
Even before his death on Friday night, Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was already a kind of myth, and interpretations of his life's work varied.
In Miami, local reports described the mood of the exile community as jubilant and sometimes angry: traffic closed on Calle Ocho, the heart of Little Havana, as hundreds of people honked car horns, waved flags, danced and called for Raul Castro, Cuba鈥檚 octogenarian president, to hurry up and join his brother.听The city鈥檚 Cuban-born mayor,聽Tom谩s Regalado, spent the night outside with the throngs, according to the Miami Herald.
鈥淓verything has been spontaneous,鈥� . 鈥淭he only thing that the city has done is accommodate the people.鈥澛�
鈥淭he written plans are no good because people do what they want. I鈥檝e gotten calls from some organizations saying how they want to organize an event,鈥� he added. 鈥淏ut to tell people to go to a specific place, you can't. People go where they want to go.鈥澛�
That contrasted with what Cuban opposition blogger and journalist Yoani Sanchez described as a subdued tone in Havana.听
鈥淪ome see him off with pain, others with relief 鈥� the great majority with a certain tone of indifference,鈥� on Saturday morning.
Fidel鈥檚 death comes as Cuba鈥檚 antiquarian political class continues to tiptoe away from its hardline policies on private enterprise, and many observers assume that a broader liberalization of the country鈥檚 political scene could follow, however miniature the scale. Reactions to the event may hint at the durability of Fidel's legacy in setting the basic terms of Cuba鈥檚 future politics.
In Latin America,聽where his legacy as a gadfly to the North American colossus served as a precedent for the hemisphere鈥檚 growing sense of common interest and willingness to buck Washington on key issues, Fidel鈥檚 death prompted exaltation among Castro understudies like Ecuador鈥檚 president Rafael Correa and Venezuela鈥檚 Nicolas Maduro as well as the more temperate-tongued governments of Mexico (which called him an 鈥溾��) and Uruguay, which .听
And as in Venezuela, where the late Hugo Chavez pulled much of the opposition toward the left in its policies even as it rallied against him, some features of Castro鈥檚 legacy could well remain staples of Cuba鈥檚 politics, as Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer noted.
"If the Communist Party remains a powerful force in Cuban politics, as Argentina's Peronista Party did after Peron's death, Castro's followers will most likely rally around the memory of his achievements, real or imagined,鈥澛�. "Some aspects of his regime 鈥撀爏uch as his defying the United States, or his policies to guarantee free health and education services for all聽鈥撀爉ay be supported by future Cuban politicians, even if they are likely to distance themselves from Castro's totalitarian ways."聽
Fidel鈥檚 death also silences his voice of skepticism toward the US-Cuba normalization, delivered in columns that reminded Cubans of the history of US aggressions toward Cuba鈥檚 sovereignty. But many in the opposition doubt that this will quicken the pace of economic reforms.听
鈥淗opefully something will move in the power structure, and there will be voices that dare to tell [Raul] that the father of the dictatorship is dead, there鈥檚 another administration in the United States,鈥� said聽Jos茅 Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, the country鈥檚 largest opposition organization, 鈥淏ut probably they鈥檒l end up in prison."
