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Jeremiah Wright's Cuban Friends By Humberto Fontova Was it remotely conceivable that someone with Jeremiah's Wright's worldview and connections had somehow avoided a pilgrimage to the world capitol of Yankee-hatred, to worship and commiserate with its high priests? Not a chance. Reverend Wright was part of Revered Jesse Jackson's 300 person entourage to Havana in 1984. “Viva Fidel!” bellowed Reverend Jackson while concluding his speech at the University of Havana. “Viva Che Guevara!..Long Live our cry of Freedom!” “He (Jesse Jackson)is a great personality,” reciprocated a beaming Fidel Castro, “a brilliant man with a great talent, capable of communicating with...

Cuban emigres living out rags-to-riches fairytale with colt Gayego Dr. Jose Prieto, left, and Carlos Juelle pose with Gayego shortly after they purchased him at the 2006 Keeneland September yearling sale. Carlos A. Juelle Mike Brunker Horse racing editor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Few, if any, have traveled a more improbable and circuitous route to the Kentucky Derby than Carlos Juelle and Jose Prieto. The Cuban émigrés journey to the owners’ suite at Churchill Downs traces back nearly four decades to hard-labor camps and a maximum security prison run by Fidel Castro’s communist regime. Juelle, a 68-year-old semi-retired business executive...

The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access. This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks. Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look. The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month. But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad.

HAVANA - Only a month has passed since ordinary Cubans won the right to own computers, and the government still keeps a rigid grip on Internet access. But that hasn't stopped thousands from finding their way into cyberspace. And a daring few post candid blogs about life in the communist-run country that have garnered international audiences Yoani Sanchez writes the "Generacion Y" blog and gets more than a million hits a month, mostly from abroad — though she has begun to strike a chord in Cuba. On her site and others, anonymous Cubans offer stinging criticisms of their government. But...

Body of South American Youth Mutilated Near Guantanamo! By Humberto Fontova Thursday, April 24, 2008 Body of South American Youth Mutilated Near Guantanamo! U.S. Officials Rebuff Inquiries! Bereaved Family of Young Idealist Demand Answers! Havana is 500 miles from Guantanamo so “near” is a relative term. And U.S. officials haven't been grilled on the matter. But everything in the above headline is true. Nonetheless, allow me to apologize to the Bolivian family of the victim for my flim-flammery as an intro. If I 'd started this column with what this family strongly suspects: that the mutilation and possible death of...

By Marc Frank April 23, 2008 HAVANA (Reuters) - An ailing Fidel Castro took partial credit on Wednesday for firing Cuba's long-serving education minister this week, indicating that he would remain influential behind the scenes as long as he is able. Castro, who was succeeded by his younger brother Raul Castro as president this year after almost half a century at the helm, blasted former minister Luis Ignacio Gomez for being "burnt out" and "losing revolutionary consciousness." In a newspaper column, Castro laid into Gomez for travelling abroad too much and taking personal credit for advances in Cuba's education system.

In an apparent lack of confidence in the leadership of Raul Castro, the number of Cubans leaving the island illegally by sea has been rising, according to U.S. officials. The number of people attempting the perilous voyage across of the Florida Straits has risen 21 percent compared to the same period last year. The number intercepted by the Coast Guard increased 65 percent. Since the beginning of October 2007, some 2,891 Cubans have attempted the journey across the straits. While 1,697 successfully reached the United States, 1,194 were intercepted at sea and returned to Cuba. Nearly ten times the number...

Cuba's Useful Idiot By Humberto Fontova FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/16/2008 Last month Dan Rather’s new gig as host of HDNET's “Dan Rather Reports” found him, as so often during his CBS days, “reporting” from Cuba. From Dan we heard of “dramatic changes” down there, of a “remarkable transformation.” “The door (to the U.S.) is open, “explained Dan. “The best time to talk is now.” Dan was chanting a familiar tune, one we've heard almost nonstop from the MSM's pet “Cuba Experts'” for the past 21 months. As usual when dealing with Cuban matters, a sober look behind the carefully constructed and...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that his close friend Fidel Castro predicted the fall of the U.S. dollar. Chavez said Cuba's 81-year-old former president mentioned the prediction some time ago before signs of a weakening dollar had begun to appear. "Fidel told me one day, 'Chavez, it won't be long before the crisis of the dollar occurs,'" the Venezuelan leader said in a televised speech. Chavez said Castro handed him a document he had written during one of their meetings in Havana that said "the United States has bought half the world with paper bills that...

HAVANA (Reuters) - The number of Cubans risking their lives to leave their communist-run country illegally by sea to reach the United States is rising, U.S. officials in Havana said on Thursday. Since October 1, 2007, 2,891 Cubans have tried to cross the Florida Straits; 1,697 made it to the United States and were allowed to stay while the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted 1,194 and sent them back. The U.S. officials said the figures showed that average Cubans had little faith that life would improve in the one-party socialist state under President Raul Castro, who succeeded his ailing brother Fidel...

“But, you’re an Anglo” By Jack Furnari My first public act of political speech was spoken in Spanish. A language I do not speak. The recent “retirement” of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro made me think of a brisk sunny day in New York City when I first found my political voice. It was 1979, and I was on the train going to my job at a midtown corporation when something I read in the newspaper struck me in a profound way. Juanita Castro, the sister of Fidel Castro was going to protest her brother Fidel’s speech at the United Nations...

HAVANA - Raul Castro's government opened luxury hotels and resorts to all Cubans Monday, ending a ban despised across the island as "tourist apartheid" and taking another step toward the creation of a consumer economy in the socialist state. ADVERTISEMENT Cuba has made a series of crowd-pleasing announcements in the past few days. Cubans with enough cash will be able to buy computers, DVD players and plasma televisions starting Tuesday, and soon they'll even be able to have their own cell phones — consumer goods only companies and foreigners were previously permitted to buy. But the latest surprise, allowing ordinary...

The Hemisphere: Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.As befits a new dictator seeking to win some popularity, Castro is lifting ownership restrictions for ordinary Cubans on mobile phones, computers, DVD players, even toasters. But unlike the toasters that U.S. banks used to give away, these don't come free. Each of Raul's offerings to buy goods comes with a state-set price most Cubans have no realistic prospect of affording. Average Cuban salaries, minus...

HAVANA (AP) - Ailing former leader Fidel Castro made a rare mention of his government's crackdown on political opponents five years ago, defending the action and exhorting the United States to treat its prisoners with the same humanity he said Cuba uses with its inmates. "What an enormous difference between the methods of the United States and of Cuba!" Castro wrote in an essay published Monday in state media, apparently referring to how the U.S. government treats terror suspects. "None of the mercenaries were tortured or deprived of attorney or trial," Castro said of the 75 dissidents rounded up beginning...

In 1958, the year before Fidel Castro came to power in a revolution and promised prosperity, democracy and the restoration of Cuba's 1940 constitution, the Caribbean island, while troubled by poverty, a corrupt dictator and the American Mafia, was also better off than most developing nations. While poor compared to the United States, Cuba in 1958 had a per capita GDP of $3,170 according to the OECD. (Canada's was $8,947.). But Cuba outranked all other Latin American countries except four: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela. Tellingly, in 1958, the island nation's per person wealth was higher than any East Asian...

Prominent Cuban author and dissident, Armando Valladares, has predicted the collapse of communism in Cuba after the death of former president Fidel Castro. Valladares said that people in Cuba were tired of 'acquiescing to state terrorism' like others had in communist Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Valladares said that the young "sons of the revolution, are becoming ever more politically active... The author who spent 22 years in prison was in Italy to present a new edition of his most popular work, Against All Hope: a Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulags, in the Italian capital in Rome. He also critised...

Cuban President Raul Castro's recently revealed economic "reforms" brought to mind two quite unrelated characters: Lewis Carroll's White Queen, and an old Cuban exile acquaintance of mine named Ignacio. President Raul, the sprightly 76-year-old who was "elected" to the presidency of Cuba on February 24, thus replacing his ailing octogenarian brother, Fidel, is reportedly planning to grant his enslaved nation access to more consumer goods. Citing "the improved availability of electricity," the new Maximum Leader will offer for sale computers, DVD players, pressure cookers and microwave ovens. However, air conditioners are not to be made available until next year, and...

The Batista soldiers would get a trial, after facing Che’s firing squad. Che often liked to finish the job with a .45 at five paces, shattering the skull of the condemned. And he liked killing. Prior to the revolution in Cuba, and shortly after landing in Cuba with Fidel and Raul Castro, Che wrote his wife. In the letter, he said, “”I’m here in Cuba’s hills, alive and thirsting for blood.” Another account has the wording a little different, with Che writing, ““Here in the Cuban jungle, alive and bloodthirsty.”

New Cuban president Raul Castro, announced plans to increase his country’s efforts to spy on the United States under his regime. “Fidel was too trusting,” Raul lamented. “I will correct that weakness.” The initial “bold first step” in this increased effort will be to get a subscription to the New York Times. “I have heard that the New York Times publishes many of the U.S. government’s secrets,” Raul said. “We will join the ranks of those who are among the first to know these secrets.” To avert the possibility that the U.S. government might seek to bar Cuban access to...

In Havana, the enfeebled fingers of Fidel Castro have handed the baton of dictatorship to the feeble fingers of his brother, Raul. The endgame is in sight, but what will it lead to? There are those in Miami and Washington who believe that, by some miracle, the status quo ante will return to Cuba, but this time with democracy and transparency. To understand what might happen in Cuba, let us look at two examples of countries where power was transferred.

Carmen Peláez is a liberal with a deep laugh and a great sense of the absurd. All of those qualities are tested when she encounters fellow New Yorkers who still admire Fidel Castro. Ms. Peláez, a Cuban-American actress, was born in this country and raised in Miami. She came to New York in 1993 to study acting. In the mid-’90s, she traveled to Cuba to explore the world of her great-aunt, Amelia Peláez, a noted painter who died in 1968. All those experiences pulse through “Rum & Coke,” a one-woman show in which she channels relatives on both sides of...

The letter from a 12-year-old to “my good friend Roosvelt” [sic] is dated Nov. 6, 1940, one day after FDR won a third term. Saying he is “very happy” FDR won, he adds: “If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american.” The letter, an enlarged copy of which is on display in the National Archives, ends: “Good by. Your friend, Fidel Castro.”

HAVANA — A growing underground network of young people armed with computer memory sticks, digital cameras and clandestine Internet hookups has been mounting some challenges to the Cuban government in recent months, spreading news that the official state media try to suppress. Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly. Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire through Havana,...

The EU steel industry is terrified that Europe's new cap-and-trade system of penalizing steel-plant emissions will cost 50,000 of its 300,000 steel-industry jobs. But don't worry, if the EU gets serious about cap-and-trade, it will simply violate the rules of the World Trade Organization and start taxing imported steel for the CO2 emissions from Indian and Chinese steel plants. The problem won't be lost jobs in Europe's steel or plastics industries. The problem will be that virtually nothing new will be manufactured for Europe. No new appliances or autos. They take too much steel. No new concrete roads or brick...

Back in late September 2006 in The Partial Assassination of Castro, I presented evidence that Castro had probably been poisoned with a tasteless odorless poison called superwarfarin, had hemorrhaged profusely for a prolonged period, and had been brain damaged in the process. He has been living in a medical version of prison, unable to talk to the outside world lest he embarrass himself, Cuba and the cause of Communism. Since then further evidence has supported that conclusion. Even if Fidel Castro was brain damaged, that did not stop his brother and associates from creating a facade that Fidel was still...

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, like his friend Fidel Castro, has earned a place in the pantheon of the modern American left. Chavez, who has aligned himself with America’s terrorist-sponsoring enemies abroad, understands public relations, and his policies have earned him the admiration of leftist nonprofits and activists..... Many U.S. lawmakers are fans of Chavez. His admirers include Senator Chris Dodd, Representatives John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich. Other fans include Jesse Jackson and the Marxist writers Howard Zinn and Naomi Klein. ..... Clearly, Hugo Chavez is a man only American leftists could love – and they do. U.S. activists such as...

Castro, McCain spar over Cuban torture in Vietnam Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:39am EST HAVANA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro took on front-running U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday, accusing him of lying about Cubans torturing American prisoners of war in Vietnam. At a campaign stop in Miami last month, the Arizona senator told anti-Castro exiles that American POWs held with him in Hanoi were tortured by "a couple of Cubans." "His accusation against the Cuban revolutionaries ... are completely unethical," Castro wrote in an article published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma....

Andy Garcia is urging fashion-conscious rebels to stop wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the image of Latino revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara because they remind Cubans of terrible times. The actor accepts that Guevara stands for rebellion and is seen as a hero to many, but he sees the revolutionary as a butcher who killed millions of his countrymen. Argentine-born Guevara helped current Cuban leader Fidel Castro overthrow General Fulgencio Batista's government in a guerrilla revolution in the late 1950s. Garcia, who left Cuba when he was five, says, "I'd be curious to go around and ask them how much they really...

A Day in the Life of a Retired Dictator: 7:30 a.m. For breakfast it's my usual bowl of Mueslix with plantains. Then I call Raúl to get the latest numbers on the sugar cane crop, which haven't improved by one lousy hectare since yesterday. 8:15 a.m. Another fancy gift basket arrives from Hugo Chávez -- more mixed nuts and taffy, which I can't possibly eat because of my stomach issues. Why does Hugo not remember? 9:00 a.m.-9:20 a.m. I write several peppy new anti-American slogans and read them to Raúl over the phone. The one I like best is ``Down...

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuban President Raul Castro is taking over leadership of a country whose government believes its citizens are not working hard enough. The state-run newspaper recently ran an article headlined "Work: Option or necessity?" The writer pointed out that, judging by the number of people in the streets during the day, many Cubans don't seem to be on the job. They have few motivations to buckle down: Salaries average about $15 per month on the island, and Cubans get monthly food rations even if they don't work. Watch a report on the realities in Cuba » "There...

Castro a hero of our times Published Monday February 25th, 2008 Appeared on page C7 In the Second World War, we soon learned our world was against the kill-to-win policy of the enemies we challenged. I was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, a major player in winning the air war. In 1945, that world spirit against the killing policy created the United Nations with its goal to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Perhaps that is why I see Castro as a hero of our times. Here is a leader of a UN nation who...

Neil Clark says that he went to Havana in search of a left-wing Utopia and discovered instead an island fortress of poverty, corruption and currency apartheid It’s a country where the vast majority live in poverty, while a tiny, corrupt elite live in luxury. It’s a place where, 14 years after South Africa abolished apartheid, a form of it still operates. Welcome to Cuba, the ‘socialist’ paradise built by that great egalitarian Fidel Castro, who after 49 years at the helm has finally decided to hand over power — in the manner of a true democrat — to his brother...

In 1962, Mr. Castro lost a round of golf to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who had been a caddy in his Argentine hometown before he became a guerrilla icon. Mr. Castro's defeat may have had disastrous consequences for the sport... A journalist who wrote about the defeat of Cuba's Maximum Leader, who was a notoriously bad loser, was fired the next day. Now, top officials on the island want to turn Mr. Castro's Communist paradise into a hotspot for this decidedly capitalist sport, to generate hard cash for its cash-strapped economy. Last year, Cuba's minister of tourism, Manuel Marrero, announced plans...

As expected, the Cuban national assembly rubber-stamped Raul Castro as his brother Fidel's replacement as dictator of the island nation. However, instead of keeping Carlos Lage in the ceremonial post of vice-president, or perhaps grooming a successor to the septuagenarian Raul, they picked a man older than Raul as his backup: Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president on Sunday, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel but leaving the island's communist system unshaken. In a surprise move, officials bypassed younger candidates to name a 77-year-old revolutionary leader, Jose Ramon Machado, to Cuba's No. 2 spot — apparently...

A New York Times reporter with pre-Castro family ties to Cuba tells us that the country is facing change (big surprise) and that it's not necessarily a good thing.I know what you're thinking: "Of course a Times reporter is afraid of what will come after Castro." Most of the story is a melange of boring personal reminiscences, thankfully free of paeans to what we're all supposed to think is the best healthcare and education on earth.The message we're probably supposed to get is that ordinary Cubans like the life they have now, even as they express this sentiment in furtive...

HAVANA — Nearly 50 years of rule by Fidel Castro ended in Cuba on Sunday as parliament chose his brother Raul to replace him — a transition that leaves the island's communist system unshaken. The new president proposed consulting with the ailing 81-year-old Fidel on all major decisions of state, and parliament approved the proposal. The vote came five days after Fidel said he was retiring, capping a career in which he frustrated efforts by 10 U.S. presidents to oust him. The transition was not likely to bring a major shift in policies of the communist government that have put...

North Korea praises Cuba's Castro Sat Feb 23, 8:31 AM ET North Korea praised Fidel Castro on Saturday as a close ally who did not allow U.S. sanctions and a blockade to hinder his leadership of Cuba. "The Korean people have regarded Fidel Castro as the closest comrade-in-arms and comrade, and will make positive efforts to steadily consolidate and develop the relations of friendship with the fraternal Cuban people," the North's official Korean Central News Agency cited the Foreign Ministry as saying. The ailing 81-year-old leader ended his 49-year rule of the Caribbean nation when he resigned as president Tuesday....

Anti-American snarkiness has reared its ugly little head in this London Times travel story by Tom Chesshyre, "Tourism 'golden era' ends in Cuba." Apparently, The Times believes that life under Fidel Castro's oppressive regime was a "golden era" for visiting that island. Yes, how quaint to see dilapidated buildings and people whose diets are severely restricted by government rationing. The Times seems to fear that these "good times" may soon be coming to an end and urges visits there before the atmosphere is ruined by the American tourist "invasion": Travellers interested in visiting Cuba are being advised to go now before an...

Jackie Levy rejects Castro’s views, but respects his old-time leftist desire to change world Jackie Levy Published: 02.24.08, 09:30 / Israel Opinion One need not be an avowed fan of the communist doctrine in order to feel something in the face of the curtain falling on Fidel Castro’s regime. In an era where most nations hand over the helm to small-time bureaucrats and sly lawyers that look and sound as if they came off the same production line, Castro may be the last leader who can be recognized only by his silhouette. We are dealing with a mythical, colorful figure...

Cuba freed four dissidents jailed in 2003 as a way to mollify human-rights critics. After their arrival in Spain following their release, the four explained how bad it got for them in Cuban prisons, and held out little hope that Fidel Castro's retirement would improve conditions for Cubans: Four dissidents freed this week after five years in inhumane conditions in a Cuban prison have revealed the dark side of Fidel Castro’s regime. The four - José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Omar Pernet Hernández, Alejandro González and Pedro Pablo Álvarez - described regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of...

Four dissidents freed this week after five years in inhumane conditions in a Cuban prison have revealed the dark side of Fidel Castro’s regime. The four...described regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of solitary confinement in cramped cells with cement beds. They said they were deprived of food and water in conditions which resembled "a desert". Arriving in Spain to be reunited with their families, they exposed the routine abuse of political prisoners which marked Castro’s five decades in power. The four were part of a group of 75 dissidents who were jailed in 2003 by Castro’s...

NO DICTATOR will be without friends in this country - as long as they give Uncle Sam the two fingers. So when Fidel Castro this week said he'd step down, sort of, after 49 years of running Cuba into the ground, it wasn't hard to find some weeping fans. "An icon," gushed Joan Coxsedge, who heads the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society. "He makes a great deal more sense . . . than anybody else." And don't try telling Coxsedge that Castro bans free elections - let alone that he has at least 20 journalists and dozens of political opponents in jail...

HAVANA (AP) — Fidel Castro said Friday he made the right call when he called it quits, and is exhausted and overdue for a vacation. But the old man can't put away his pen just yet, not when U.S. presidential candidates are one-upping each other to show who's toughest on Cuba. After a Thursday night debate in which Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama argued about how best to push for change in Cuba, Republican John McCain bluntly said Friday that he hopes Castro will die "very soon." With comments like these flying around the campaign trail and the...

HAVANA - Fidel Castro said Friday that he's relieved to be stepping down as Cuba's president, complaining that the process of selecting Cuba's next government "had left me exhausted." After nearly a half-century in power, Castro announced Tuesday that he wouldn't accept another term when parliament selects a new government on Sunday. "The night before, I slept better than ever," Castro wrote in a newspaper column. "My conscience was clear and I promised myself a vacation." The ailing 81-year-old said Tuesday that he's not well enough to continue as president. Most expect his brother Raul, five years younger, to step...

McCain hopes Castro to "meet Marx soon" Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:18am EST By Jason Szep INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner John McCain suggested on Friday that he hoped retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro would die soon and said Castro's brother will be a worse leader. "I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon," McCain told a town-hall style meeting of about 150 people, referring to communist theoretician Marx who died on March 14, 1883. Castro, 81, announced on Tuesday he was stepping down as president and commander-in-chief of Cuba's armed forces after 49 years...

Cuba features a universal health care system, a minuscule 1.9 percent unemployment rate, near-total literacy, complete political "unity" — and hundreds of thousands of people ready to risk their lives to get the hell out. How could that be? Supermodel Naomi Campbell claims that Fidel Castro is "a source of inspiration to the world." Actually, in South Beach, dingbat stick-figures can pocket millions strutting down runways, but in Cuba, young women are destined to toil in a socialist economy with little hope. They aren't inspired by Castro. Suicide rates are estimated to have tripled since El Caballo began running things....

Fidel Castro slumps away, Bush races to history's dungheap, and 13 million TVs prepare to die. Are you ready? You know what we don't really get enough of in American culture? Change. No, not the bland politicalspeak Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton brand of broad sloganeering bumper-sticker change, the kind where part of your naive perky innocent unicorns-in-the-sky self really wants to believe it's all going to be hopeful and good and radically different, but yet you kind of know, deep down, when you peel back the masks and the rhetoric and the spin, that when all is said and done, pretty...

The announcement this week of Fidel Castro's retirement was a mere formality. You'll recall the identical announcement July of 2006. In fact, many Cuba watchers will tell you that his little brother, Raul, as head of Cuba's Armed Forces, has been mostly running Cuba--the nuts and bolts of the thing--for decades, and more singlehandedly for the past five years.

Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (2nd R) blesses the crowd during Mass outside Havana's cathedral February 21, 2008. The Vatican hopes Bertone's visit will bring further improvement in the once strained relations with the government so that the Catholic Church can operate more freely in Cuba. REUTERS/Claudia Daut (CUBA) The Vatican's No. 2 official hinted Thursday at a papal visit to Cuba, hours after Pope Benedict XVI said Roman Catholics on the communist-run island still face difficulties and distrust.Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, was in Cuba to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Pope John...

Washington, D.C. — Fidel Castro is finally on his way out. After nearly 50 years of bloody, iron-fisted rule, the world’s longest reigning dictator — and one of the last communist tyrants on the planet — has announced that he is stepping down. That’s good news, but it’s not likely to change much for the 11 million captive people in Cuba. On February 19, Granma, the Cuban Communist Party’s organ, carried a letter purportedly written by the 81-year-old ailing autocrat, announcing that ill health prevents him from continuing to “discharge the duties” of president and commander-in-chief of Cuba's armed forces....