Posted on 12/15/2006 6:56:22 AM PST by meg88
Speculations whipping around South Florida that the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, is near death reached fever pitch this week as federal emergency officials ran "post-Castro" drills in preparation for the death announcement.
Officials described how the demise of the communist dictator could spark their worst nightmares — either a flood of Cuban refugees heading in makeshift boats toward Florida's beaches or a flotilla of Cuban exiles taking off to help liberate Cuba.
Anti-Castro Cuban-Americans began planning champagne parties, while local police prepared to close thoroughfares in the event people began to dance in the streets.
The expectation of Mr. Castro's imminent death has been building for months, ever since the Cuban leader, who is 80, underwent abdominal surgery for an undisclosed condition in July and missed two separate parties celebrating his own birthday.
All Cubans have seen of him is a handful of photographs and snippets of video footage.
On Tuesday, the day of the "post-Castro"drill, a popular anti-Castro radio host in Miami, Ninoska Perez, told listeners to call in about what they planned to do at the moment the death was announced.
"It was kind of cathartic. People were saying, ‘This is something I've waited for all my life,'" Ms. Perez said. "This is the one day you think of your parents. You think of how this man has changed your life. … It's a death that I will celebrate."
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
[The Blind Sheik and Fidel in one week?]
Must be a huge republican conspiracy- probably setting the stage for an invasion into Cuba for ... their oil! or so the dems might be thinking http://sacredscoop.com
Janet "El" Reno, as a guest of Elian's father...
alZogby would have been more accurate with this corrected statement!
And dopey college students will use his image on T-shirts ala Che Guevara.
Rep. (MA) James McGovern.
They may go, but do we have to let them come back? ;)
But didn't his doc tell him he would live to be 130 or so?
No, he told him he'd be "Well Preserved" at 130.
Do you see a body? If the answer is no, he ain't dead - yet.
Medea Benjamin (Code Pink), Cindy Sheehan (IDIOT), Gael Murphy (CP), Brian Becker (WWP), Mara VerHeyden-Hilliard (WWP), John Kerry (Vietnam Veteran), Jimmy Carter (Peanut Brain)... but then, they are American in name only.
The Cuban government will release the news of Castro's death when they are good and ready, i.e., when they feel that the release of the news will cause them the least possible trouble. The news may come within hours after his death, or it may be days, weeks, even months. It is not exactly a transparent regime. The possibility that the man is dead already is very real.
Excellent way to state the obvious.
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