“I’m not tired of celebrating because I can’t believe it. I never thought that this moment would arrive,” said a woman named Delsy who declined to give her last name. She celebrated with a large crowd outside the Cafe Versailles, where exiles met in the Cold War’s heyday to plot the overthrow of the Castro regime.
Some two million Cubans live in the United States, nearly 70 percent of them in Florida. The vast majority of those live in Miami and many saw Castro as a brutal tyrant.
Streets that had been closed because of the festive crowd reopened Sunday as authorities tried to restore a semblance of normality. But then they had to close them down again.
Among the cacophony of car horns, drums, loud music and singing, a chant rang out: “Fidel, you tyrant, take your brother too!”
Fidel Castro may be gone, but his younger brother Raul, 85, remains in power as president of the Americas’ only one-party Communist-run state.
A rally demanding freedom and democratic reforms in Cuba has been convened for Wednesday in Little Havana.
It will coincide with the start of a four-day procession in which Castro’s remains will be taken around the island of 11 million for people to pay their respects.
“The tyrant is dead but the tyranny continues,” said activist Orlando Gutierrez of the Cuban Resistance Assembly.
Several blocks to the east, the popular Ball & Chain salsa nightclub offered discounts and a new drink: “Adios Fidel” (Farewell Fidel).
The place was bursting with people Saturday night. The street outside, full of Cuban restaurants and bars, was packed with late-night pedestrians and customers.
At a nearby corner, Cuban retirees sat outside, enjoying the warm and humid night as they discussed the island’s future.
“Now we Cubans have hope that without Fidel, communism will fall, and if God allows it, we can return to our free country,” said Vicente Abrez, 65.
However, Leticia Gallo, a 44-year-old therapist who arrived in Miami from Cuba seven years ago with a young son, doesn’t believe Castro’s death will immediately change much.
