Fidel Steps Down; Miami Says, "So What?"

When Cuban native Maria Elena Alvarez first heard the news that Fidel Castro had finally stepped from his post as Cuba's president, her reaction was "so what?"

The 81-year-old leader's decision to leave power didn't unfold the way she and other exiles had long imagined it would: his sudden death, the return of freedom to her homeland and dancing in the streets of Miami.

Despite the anti-climatic announcement that will virtually guarantee Castro's brother Raul as his successor, by Tuesday evening Alvarez was drawn to the streets of Little Havana.

"As the day went on, I realized it's important, even if it's just one step on a very long ladder," she said.

The Miami real estate agent joined nearly 150 people milling about the famed Versailles restaurant, the site of many exile protests and a requisite stop for presidential candidates courting the Cuban-American vote.

But the celebration was muted in Miami's Little Havana as it was in the heavily Cuban suburb of Hialeah. Exiles hold little hope that democracy on the island is at hand. Castro's resignation comes as part of a measured withdrawal from power that began a year and a half ago.

On the streets of Little Havana, U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart offered a cautionary note.

"Who holds the power, the absolute power, regardless of what title he may give himself on a given day is Fidel Castro. Until he is out of the picture, he will continue to hold that power within that regime," Diaz-Balart told CBS News station WFOR-TV in Miami.

Outside a Hialeah cafeteria, Henry Martinez, 50, said he wasn't sure how the community in Miami and people on the island would react to the news.

"It's about time this happened." said Martinez, a physical therapist who came to Miami from Cuba 11 years ago.

"What Cubans want to know is if there's going to be change or if it's going to stay the same," he added. "Maybe not democracy, but something like China."

Others were more skeptical.

"People are saying that all of this is a sham," 25-year-old Osiel Diegues said at the Hialeah barbershop where he works. "As long as Fidel is alive, and as long as communism remains, nothing will change."

Homeland Security officials said they were monitoring Florida's borders but saw no sign of any mass migration.

Tuesday's reaction contrasted with the three-day street party in Little Havana in July 2006, when Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul because of a severe stomach ailment. Then, there were thousands of people banging drums and chanting.

But little has changed on the communist island under Raul Castro. That has frustrated many of the nearly 1 million Cubans and Cuban-Americans who live in Miami-Dade County.

Blanca Gonzalez's son, Normando Hernandez, an investigative reporter in Cuba. He has been in a Cuban prison for the past five years, accused of being a dissident. He was arrested along with more than 70 other prominent journalists and human rights activists during Cuba's "Primavera Negra" or the Black Spring of 2003, reports WFOR.

"My own son, simply for writing, for speaking the truth, he has been condemned for 25 years in prison," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez says she hasn't been allowed to talk to her son since his imprisonment.

Blanca barely gave the news of Castro's resignation a second thought, because though she prays for it, she doesn't really believe life in Cuba will change as long as he and his brother, Raul, are breathing, reports WFOR.

Most exiles view Castro as a ruthless dictator who forced them from their homes after he seized power in 1959. But newer arrivals and second-generation Cuban-Americans are less likely to agree that the U.S. embargo against Cuba has been an effective tool.

And many with family still on the island chafe under Bush administration policies that limit the amount of money they can send home and restrict their visits to once every three years.

Alicia Gonzalez, 74, also was excited to hear the news as she waited for the rain to stop so she could buy ingredients to make Cuban-style tamales for her grandson. She too doubts there will be significant change under Raul Castro.

"There's no difference," she said. "Why? Because people are used to the system. There could be a succession, but it will take time."

The reaction was similar in Union City, part of a northern New Jersey area that has the nation's largest concentration of Cuban-Americans outside of Miami.

"In my opinion, there's not going to be a change. It's one dictator for the next," said Frank Corbato, 48, a truck driver born in Havana who lives in nearby North Bergen.

Even as Raul Castro has given some signs of change - calling for improved relations with the U.S. and suggesting the country turn to ethanol - his older brother has undermined him, writing opinion pieces that counter the proposals.

Carlos Saladrigas, co-chairman of the business-backed Cuba Study Group, said he is cautiously optimistic that Raul Castro will now be able to move forward with more changes.

"The door has just opened," he said.

As she stood with a friend outside of Versailles waiting to grab a cup of Cuban coffee, Alvarez agreed.

"Maybe (Raul) wants to leave a legacy that he was not as bad as Fidel Castro," she said. "My hope is to see that the 90 miles between the U.S. and Cuba becomes a permanent bridge, like the Golden Gate."