Fidel Castro's Announcement

The story I covered for Tuesday, Feb. 20th was Fidel Castro's announcement that he would not seek another term as president of Cuba. Though many argue that he is not a president, but a dictator and that the word "term" shouldn't even be applied to his case, he announced it anyway.

Fidel came to power in Cuba in 1959 when he overthrew the government of Fulgencio Batista. According to Carlos Manuel Gonzalez, a Cuban gentleman that now lives in Oklahoma City, things before Castro were much better. Gonzalez said that there was much more freedom and opportunity in the pre-Castro Cuba, and when Castro took power, the government took over everything. Gonzalez left Cuba in 1962 at the age of 19 and hasn't been back since.

Eventhough Castro has announced that he will be stepping down, many people believe nothing will change. Fidel's brother, Raul, who has been filling in for Fidel since he became ill in July of 2006, will probably be next in line as president. The decision will be made by Cuba's National Assembly this coming Sunday. Raul has been Cuba's defence minister for decades and seems to be the perfect choice for a government that may feel threatened by the United States during this time of transition.

Many think that eventhough Raul has stated that some things in Cuba are as they shouldn't be, such as the amount of money that people are paid, he will follow in the footsteps of his brother. Our Cuban friend from Oklahoma City, Mr. Gonzalez is of that same line of thinking and he told me that he thinks Raul won't change anything because he still believes in Communism. Gonzalez believes things won't change in Cuba until there are no more Castro's left governing it.

Gonzalez finished our interview by telling me he would love to see Cuba free, as it was almost 50 years ago. Only time will tell now.