junior year

This is really crazy– Fidel Castro is no longer in charge of Cuba! Check out what CNN has to say:

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — Cuba’s National Assembly chose Raul Castro, Fidel Castro’s younger brother, as Cuba’s new president on Sunday.

Fidel Castro, 81, who has ruled the country since the 1950s, announced his resignation last week in a letter published on the online version of the state-run newspaper Granma.

He cited his “critical health condition” and said, “it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer.”

Castro entered the hospital in 2006 for intestinal surgery and transferred some powers to his 76-year-old brother Raul, the country’s longtime defense minister.

On Sunday, the National Assembly — Cuba’s 614-member legislature — chose through secret ballot the 31-member Council of State, which acts on behalf of the Assembly when it is not in session.

The nominees for the Council of State — there is only one for each post — must receive support from at least 307 members of the National Assembly.

Fidel Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernandez, who lives in Florida, told CNN that Sunday’s events were unlikely to significantly affect the country.
She has long opposed her father’s regime.

“I think that the government will remain mostly the same, but I think they are going to bring on different faces that they need,” she said.

“Is there going to be a transition here toward something?” Raul Castro once said to reporters asking about a post-Fidel Cuba. “Yes, toward a better form of socialism and — here’s something you’ll like — toward a more democratic society.”

Sounds like things might not change that much, though, since it’s just the brother taking over. Oh well, probably better anyway.