MIAMI — Early on Monday morning, passengers arrived at Miami International Airport to do something no person has done in more than 50 years, boarding a US commercial airline flight bound for the Cuban capital.

After just 45 minutes of flying time, the arrival of American Airlines Flight 17 in Havana was hailed by the Obama administration as an “important milestone in [US] reengagement in Cuba.”

The flight, while a landmark in US–Cuba relations, was overshadowed though by something even more consequential: Friday’s death of Fidel Castro, the strongman who ruled the island nation in one form or another for more than half a century and whose passing now ushers in a new era of uncertainty.

Waving flags and singing songs, hundreds of Cuban-Americans gathered in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood over the weekend to celebrate the death of a man they had reviled as a dictator. Many told BuzzFeed News that they hoped democracy would now soon come to Cuba. But others were less optimistic, and said they were uncertain that Castro’s death would bring change.

“His death is historic. The head of the snake is missing, but there remains a long tail,” said Guillermo Raul Hernandez, an 80-year-old Cuban exile living in Miami. “This change the majority of people have been waiting for isn’t going to happen in days, because the Cuban government has dedicated more than 50 years to its current system.”

He once spent three days and two nights in jail when he bought more milk than his ration allowed because his son had a calcium deficiency. Thankfully some friends who worked for the government spoke with a judge and he only had to pay a fine, Hernandez said.



Hernandez came to the US in 1967 with his wife and then-5-year-old son after witnessing the rise of Castro. He said he knows first hand the stranglehold communism has on Cuba.

“It’s going to be more of the same,” Hernandez said. “Whatever changes are brought about, I think they need to bubble up from within Cuba. There’s not very much we could do from here.”