A Different Tune

Four years ago, it seemed that Fidel Castro was on his deathbed.  Now, he seems to be much better, appearing in public and on television.  Ironically, Olga Guillot, the great Cuban singer of the 50s and 60s, has just died at 87 in exile.  She is only the latest of a long series of Fidel's enemies who have died waiting for his death, assuming that it would mean the end of the regime.  By now, I suppose that she and the rest of the Cuban exiles realized that Fidel isn't going to die anytime soon, and that the Revolution will go on without him.

Guillot was part of a pre-Castro Cuba in which corruption, drugs, gambling and prostitution were the staples of the country's Mafia-friendly economy.  As long as there was plenty of money to go around, a lot of people didn't ask where it was coming from.  Castro's "unpardonable sin" was to kick out the American Mafia from the casinos and whorehouses, affecting the livelihood of those who had it easy in that cesspool.  Today, there are still those who look back on those days with nostalgia.

Thankfully, every day there are less of them.

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