The people in Florida are happy anyway. I don't think everyone in cuba actually hates Castro. Just the people who have skills that could make them rich in other countries mostly.

I may be wrong on that however.

so whats going to happen now?

I'd assume his brother Raul takes over. I mean he's been ruling in Castro's place since he's been on sick leave. The only question is will one of the leaders with a decent military backing take offense to this.

The resignation of Castro will probably end up being bad for the cuban people.

I mean it's parliment is meeting to "elect" a new leader... but i mean... please. It's just how Castro kept getting relected.

Of course his brother is like in his 70's-80's too... so that's just a stop gap.

Oh, for what it's worth. Cuba ain't such a bad place to live. It's economy sucks, but it's basically a communist state and has no ties to America and Europe. It's got better schools and healthcare the the US.

Sure you have a loss of freedom but that is neccessary in a communist country to make sure people do the important jobs since there is no monetary incentive to do so.

It's also important to keep people from leaving cuba and going to places like America when they have those skills.

That's why communism to succeed always needed it to become a world wide phenomena. Otherwise unless you have an opressive government to keep people in place you are going to suffer serious brain drain to places that will pay.

Of course to people like American's who are taught freedom is the best and most important thing in the world this is a non negotiable fact.   

if thats true then there goes my expectation of him being inmortal....

Viva Cuba!!.... really nice people over there...

I was in Cuba this christmas. It really is an interesting economy. It's more dynamic and open to change than people think.

I am worried about a Post - Castro Cuba though. I fear either political instability or government crack down domestically, and a continuing interference from the U.S. internationally. I do hope that the country could make a transition to a Democracy, get the U.S. to drop the embargo and still maintain it's unique economic system, but that might be too much to ask for.

Also, I hope it isn't a sign that his health is failing. I'd at least like it for to him live long enough to see the Guantanamo Bay U.S. base abandoned.

Raul is 76.

It will be interesting to see what happens after this. I never thought he'd resign before he died.

Can we get this in the news section?