Cuban exiles call for big rally to mark Castro’s death

MIAMI—On the second day after the death of Cuba’s longtime leader, Fidel Castro, Miami’s Cuban-American community tapped the strongest symbols of its exile, gathering Sunday in Little Havana at a museum honoring Bay of Pigs veterans and calling for a huge rally Wednesday for “all who have been affected by this regime.”

And not far from the Bay of Pigs Museum, crowds again gathered in front of the Versailles Restaurant. People filled the sidewalks waving American and Cuban flags as passing cars blared their horns.

Some carried photos of loved ones whom they said had been jailed and persecuted by Castro, but had not lived to see the day when he died late Friday at age 90. Others banged pots and pans, and chanted rhythmic slogans in Spanish, demanding democratic reforms.

Nearly all had stories of how Castro had changed their lives, forever.

At the museum honoring the 2506 Assault Brigade, symbols abounded of the decades-long struggle against Castro’s rule— representing efforts by exiles in Miami, and by dissidents inside Cuba.

Gathered in a room with walls covered in portraits of men who died in the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, brigade veterans joined representatives of Ladies in White, an anti-government group in Cuba formed by the wives of jailed dissidents.

Throughout a news conference, they exhorted Presidentelect Donald Trump and Miami’s Cuban-American community to push hard for freedom in Cuba.

“The tyrant has died, but tyranny remains,” said Humberto Arguelles, president of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association. He announced the Wednesday rally “for liberty and democracy in Cuba.”

Arguelles said the rally will include a memorial for the victims of Castro’s repressive state, a “unified message from the Cuban resistance,” and a call to action.

Arguelles said he expects thousands of people to attend the rally.” to attend the rally.

“People are going to feel more united than ever,” he said.

Maria Elena Alpizar, a member of Ladies in White, said that upon learning of Castro’s death, she felt relieved.

“I thought, ‘I survived him,’” Alpizar said. She said she lived in Cuba for 47 years “accosted and persecuted”.

“This is not the end of communism, but the end of an era,” she said.