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Change Is In Name Only, Some Say

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By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH and KAREN BRANCH-BRIOSO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2008

Updated: 02/24/2008 11:22 pm

TAMPA - Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

That was pretty much the reaction of the local Cuban-American community after hearing Sunday that Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, would rule the country many once called home.

For Bay of Pigs veteran Silvio Llovio, 67, Raul Castro as Cuba's president doesn't mean much.

"When you can say what you want, read what you want and write what you want, that's when you're going to have freedom in Cuba," said Llovio, who left Cuba as a young man in 1960 and owns Car Collection of Tampa on Dale Mabry. "That's it. Everything else is just another dictator."

Maura Barrios, a Cuba historian and a proponent of ending the U.S. embargo, started her morning with hope.

That was dashed by the midafternoon news of the election results.

"I was having breakfast in a Cuban pizza place this morning, and I thought it would be really wonderful if they would name someone from the new generation," said Barrios, who was surprised Raul Castro's first move was to propose consulting with his older brother on all major decisions. "But this doesn't sound very promising in terms of Fidel really letting go. It's like ruling from the deathbed."

Barrios, who has traveled frequently to Cuba for research, said she'd hoped for a younger leader - such as Carlos Lage, a 56-year-old pediatrician viewed as the government's go-to guy on energy and trade issues. Raul Castro is 76.

Lage, one of several vice presidents on the 31-member Council of State, had been considered a strong contender to move into the first vice president slot, according to the Associated Press.

Instead, 77-year-old Jose Ramon Machado, who served under Che Guevara and later Fidel Castro in the early days of the Cuban Revolution, was named Raul Castro's second-in-command.

Many Prepared For Worst

Joaquin Hernandez, 59, who left Cuba with his wife and infant son in the Mariel boatlift of 1980, has three siblings living in Cuba.

"I think that this is going to have a negative impact because the people there are clamoring for change," said Hernandez, a construction contractor who lives in Pinecrest. "They have scarcities with food, running water, with electricity - there are shortages on the basics of life, and that's why so many people want to leave now."

Maria Mercedes Hernandez, 62, of Town 'N Country, wasn't surprised by the news. But she still hopes the change can help the country she left in 1967.

"I pray that there will be changes, but I don't expect them," said Hernandez, the director of refugee services for Lutheran Services Florida.

An hour or so before the final votes were counted Sunday, about 30 people gathered at the corner of Columbus Street and Dale Mabry Highway to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the day Cuban MiGs shot down two Cessnas over international waters in 1996.

Four aviators - members of a group called "Brothers to the Rescue" - died. The squad of volunteer pilots made regular flights over the Florida Straits, dropping water and emergency supplies to rafters trying to flee Cuba.

It is thought the pilots were dropping leaflets over Havana commemorating the 101st Anniversary of the Grito de Baire, the historic call to rebellion that initiated the 1895 War of Independence against Spain.

Julio Almeda, 37, joined his parents at the gathering Sunday near a memorial to the downed pilots.

"We haven't forgotten what happened," he said.

Almeda's father, Julio Sr., 79, and mother Georgina, 78, fled Cuba in 1967.

So did Aldo Recio, 82, and Maria Recio, 80, who also came to honor the "brothers."

They are old enough to remember a Cuba ruled by someone other than Fidel Castro. They have little faith that any changes will come from the ranks of the old guard.

"Nothing will really change," said Aldo Recio, who carried Cuban and American flags.

Looking Beyond Cuba

Those sentiments are not shared, though, by two women who stood at the corner of Dale Mabry and Columbus Street waving a large Venezuelan flag.

The ascension of Raul Castro, they believe, offers hope for their homeland and the rest of South America.

"I think this is the beginning of the end of the communist empire," said Norma Camero Reno, an international attorney who said she is now an U.S. citizen.

Unlike Fidel Castro, she said, Raul Castro is no friend of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"Even as an American citizen, I worry about my country and communism," said Raquel Ache Leonard, who calls Fidel Castro and Chavez "the dynamic duo" of communism in this hemisphere.

"With Raul, I think, this makes our Venezuelan regime more weak," Leonard said.

Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436 or jhollingsworth@tampatrib.com. Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso can be reached at kbranch-brioso@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7815.

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