Adios Cuba!

And as Fidel's footsteps fade in the distance, an assumption is made.

That assumption is that the United States will now have free reign to move back in to Cuba and to return to ruling the island as an Caribben theme park.

However, they may find that the European Community may already be there, and may have something to say about any incursion by the "Fat People from the Mainland".

During the course of the ill-conceived (and self-defeating) American embargo, Europeans have been enjoying Cuba for 50 years. The Euro is an accepted currency there. The Spanish, who run anything that runs efficiently on the island, know how to pull a third world economy up by the bootstraps using tourism. The British, French and Germans like to visit a caribbean island which isn't overrun with gun toting, drugs-based gangsterism.

But then, that's where the Americans come in. A free-market economy with American participation will see the return of drug-running in Cuba, in a society little-prepared to deal with it. Castro didn't achieve much, but he did keep the island relatively crime-free (apart from political prisoners), in the way that Mussolini kept the trains running on time.

The other thing Mussolini achieved was the suppression of the mafia. This was short-lived however, once the Americans landed in Sicily during WWII, and reintroduced the Mafia by bringing Lucky Luciano with them. They'd rather have an American gangster running things rather than Italians themselves.

Yes, freedom is in the eye of the beholder, and Washington's eye can be somewhat unfocussed when it comes to foreigners. What Cuba actually needs is help, and an understanding of a very unique and potent culture. Such a fragile environment and its value could be so easily destroyed by the very kind of interference that the State Department and its corporate cronies relish.

Considering Washington's previous record, I fear that Castro's revolution will be succeeded by some kind of "Disneyland run by the Taliban" atrocity.