HAVANA—As the world watches and waits for signs of change in a Cuba without Fidel Castro at the helm, few Cubans expect life to be different after a new president is named on Sunday.
Castro, 81, announced his retirement this week after nearly five decades of rule, citing the poor health that led him to provisionally hand power to his brother Raul in July 2006.
Cuba's rubber-stamp National Assembly is expected to name Raul Castro as president, ending the rule of the charismatic revolutionary who turned Cuba into a one-party state and Soviet ally on the doorstep of the United States.
Anti-Castro exiles and U.S. President George W. Bush have led international calls for democratic reform on the island since the announcement. But in the streets of the capital Havana, the mood is more of indifference than expectation.
"It's been the same for 50 years (and) there aren't going to be changes. It's possible that they'll be some measures because Raul is different to Fidel, but it won't be much," said Adela, 48, a vet, who asked not to give her full name.
"There's a lot of disillusion, a lot of sadness. The people don't care," she added.
Since announcing he would step down, Castro has hit back at the foreign calls for change.
Castro said in a newspaper article that reactions to his retirement, including calls for "liberty" in Cuba, forced him to "open fire" again on his ideological enemies.
"Change, change, change!'" they cried in chorus. I agree, 'change!' but in the United States," he wrote in a column published by the Communist Party daily Granma on Friday.
More than 70 percent of Cubans were born after Castro seized power as a bearded revolutionary fighter in 1959, and many say they are sad to see him go and relieved he will still be involved in political life to ensure a smooth transition.
Absence
His long absence from public life since falling ill has given Cubans time to get used to the idea that their leader would eventually be replaced.
Castro, who will retain heavy influence over Cuba as head of the Communist Party, said he will soldier on defending his socialist views by writing columns in the "battle of ideas." Many analysts think Raul will be reluctant to advance reforms that dismantle his brother's vision of an egalitarian society while he is still alive.
"Fidel represents balance ... Ever since he got sick, people have taken it in their stride. It's true that people are calm, and also a little sad," said taxi driver Miguel, 36, as he repaired his huge 1950s vintage American car in the central Havana district of Vedado.
"People aren't ready for a drastic change ... We've been a bit trapped, but change can be a mixed blessing," he added.
State-controlled media have devoted little air time to Sunday's historic National Assembly meeting and it was business as usual in Havana's thinly-stocked stores and street markets this week.
Cubans complain about their lack of buying power and many hunger for more freedom to travel abroad and have Internet access.
Since taking charge 19 months ago, Raul Castro has fostered open debate over the shortcoming of Cuba's state-run economy and some Cubans hope a new president could address their complaints about low wages and decrepit housing.
"Everyone talks about how a waiter earns more than a professional, that young people don't want to study, that education is getting worse," said the vet Adela.
"Everyone thinks (Raul) will have to respond ... after he takes power. Many people have this hope."
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