The news just reported that Fidel Castro just relinquished power to his brother Raul...?

This was the first I'd heard of it; I went to Yahoo news to get the scoop. I dunno, Castro must be pretty unwell to step aside for even a minute. It may be a "dry run" for his brother to get to know the Big Chair better, before he takes over for real. The Cuban public will never say it out loud, but it's gotta be pretty nerve wracking for them right now.

I don't think they'd make up a story about intestinal surgery if he was dead... they'd think of something better than that.

And in any event, they couldn't go on with the deception for long, given the media has sources everywhere.

And why would it matter if Castro was dead or alive, his brother is still in charge for the moment, one way or another. I haven't heard what his brother is like but I imagine he has the same communist persuasions as his brother.

So nothing's really changed except the face of the "face of Communism" in Cuba. Doesn't bring them any closer to democratic government. Same old, same old, just different first name.

Read this:

HAVANA - Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated U.S. attempts to oust him and survived communism’s demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night because of surgery.

The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to a letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

“The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest,” said the letter. Extreme stress “had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure.”

I think that something is hidden here.

I hope It to be the beginning of the end.

The old guard is about ready to go. I think we will normalize relations with Cuba in the next 5yrs.

The rich bastards who got kicked out of Cuba way back when will go back to Cuba, invite the mob and screw it up all over again!

What happened, did he choke on his cigar?

well they do have oil and the US is gonna want it

relations may change. he is not dead. yet.