MIAMI—Cuban exiles in Miami expressed quiet relief at Fidel Castro 's resignation Tuesday but said their homeland had moved past the longtime leader and change was inevitable.
The news that Castro would not seek a new term as president and military chief sparked no immediate celebrations in the streets of Little Havana, the community west of downtown Miami that is home to many of the city's 650,000-strong exile community.
"It's very good that Fidel resigns. But if Fidel dies, it's better," said Juan Acosta, a Cuban who left the Caribbean island in 1980, as he stopped for a newspaper on Calle Ocho, Little Havana's main street.
"The system there is almost over. You are seeing the end," said Acosta, who like many Miami Cubans has relatives on the island, in this case his mother and sister. "The dictatorship is over."
The Cuban-American National Foundation, or CANF, a leading anti- Castro exile organization, said Castro 's resignation "opens a new chapter in the history of the revolution and the history of the Cuban people."
"After 50 years there is no more one-man rule in Cuba because his successors cannot maintain the same power and the same position that he attained during the last 50 years," CANF president Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez said.
Castro , 81, said he would not return as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution that sent tens of thousands of Cubans into exile. He has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery nearly 19 months ago.
The streets of Little Havana erupted in noisy celebrations when Castro announced in July 2006 that he was handing over power temporarily to his brother, Raul.
But at the Versailles and La Carreta restaurants where many older exiles and powerbrokers meet regularly to talk politics, there was only quiet discussion Tuesday.
A few motorists honked horns when they spotted a forest of TV news truck antennae.
Rafael Del Castillo, who came to the United States in 1966, said he was hopeful Fidel Castro 's successor, his brother, would immediately begin to make changes, starting with the release of political prisoners.
"He needs to start liberating people who are in jail for no reason," said Del Castillo. "His brother is going to start opening (Cuba) to the world, opening some business with the world. It's the only alternative."
A Cuban who would identify himself only as Manolo said he was among the earliest wave of exiles, leaving in 1961. He remembered holding a three-hour business meeting with Fidel Castro in 1959 and said the ailing leader would still wield influence in Cuba.
"A man that is 80 years old and sick, his mind is feeble, but he can still think. He will still try to tell Raul certain things," he said. "I think Fidel will still be important."
Feeds