Maria Elena Salinas

Media outlets in Miami have been renting space for years in and around Versailles, the popular Cuban restaurant in Little Havana where Cuban exiles gather day and night for a shot of Cuban coffee, pastelitos, croquetas and political debate. If you want to get reactions from Cuban-Americans about everything from sports results to political events, Versailles is the place to go. That is where Cubans celebrate, and that is where they protest.

But on the day Fidel Castro announced he would not be seeking re-election as president and commander in chief of Cuba, there seemed to be more media personnel than people to interview, and the few who were there seemed to be unimpressed by the news.

Cuban exiles have been waiting for years -- some even for decades -- for the moment when Fidel Castro would no longer run the country. Millions of dollars and countless hours have been put into the effort of overthrowing Fidel Castro and bringing down his communist regime.

Exiles around the world have staged an international lobbying campaign to encourage countries to put pressure on the Cuban government to make democratic changes, hold elections, allow free speech and free press, to free political prisoners, to allow the Cuban people to travel abroad if they wish and to have access to the same privileges as the tourists who visit the island. All or any of the above would suffice. But those efforts have been futile.

There are those who believe that the only way for changes to come about in Cuba is if Fidel Castro were to die. The circumstances of his demise would be irrelevant, as far as most Cubans are concerned, although some would like for it to be as painful as the suffering they or their family members have had to endure for almost half a century. The important thing is that the end of the communist government would come.

Many exiles thought they would be able to return to their beloved land when Fidel died or was overthrown. Some left their homes behind, as well as their businesses and their families, thinking they would one day return and pick up where they left off. Some left fortunes behind; others left a lifetime of hard work. For most, the only thing they could take with them was the memories of their life. Either way, the pain is deep, and the scars even deeper if they lost a loved one to the revolution.

The only consolation for many Cuban exiles was to think that the very day Fidel was gone, they would hold the biggest, loudest, happiest, grandest most extravagant celebration of their life. And of course the cameras would be rolling and capturing every second of it. But once again, Fidel spoiled their party.

Since he fell ill in July 2006 and turned over power temporarily to his brother Raul, Cuban exiles have been waiting to exhale. Fidel has not been seen in public since then, and only a few images of his meetings with world leaders have been published. For months, rumors of his death have put both exiles and journalists on standby. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated.

So, it's easy to see why the news that Fidel Castro will not be returning to power ended up being so anticlimactic. To Cuban exiles, there is no reason to celebrate. The end of his reign of power did not yield the democratic changes they had so anticipated.

The transition of power will not be from a dictatorship to a democratically elected leadership, but rather more of the same. And when he dies, Cuba will continue to be governed by a communist regime with others at the helm.

Call him a murderer, a dictator, a tyrant -- call him what you will, but Fidel Castro is not stupid. Even on his deathbed, Castro is maneuvering to outsmart his enemies in exile. Those who were expecting the end of the communist regime with Fidel Castro's death or resignation are going to have to keep waiting.

Maria Elena Salinas can be reached at www.mariaesalinas.com.

(Feb. 23, 2008)