Castro Resigns.

Today, Tuesday, February 19, 2008, marks the official date that Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz resigned from Cuban office as president. Although he temporarily handed over power to his brother Raúl Castro in late July 2006 due to his hospitalization, today he hands over power indefinitely to his 76 year old successor and brother. After overtaking office from then Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Castro, abandoned those democratic ideals that won the people of Cuba over and embraced a totalitarian brand of communism and allied with the Soviet Union. He was an American enemy from day one. President Bush has already gone on record saying that the resignation should be the beginning a democratic transition in Cuba that should lead to free elections. “The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty.”

I remember walking the streets of Costa Rica mid day and seeing clusters of people huddled around any and every television in the capital. I walked to a news diner, it was packed with people crowding the TV hanging on the wall, some too far to even see the TV; they just listened to the audio that was blasting through the streets; "Fidel Castro entrò el hospital temprano este mañana..."

The resignation ends one of the longest terms as one of the most powerful communist heads of state in the modern world.