Castro on the improve after surgery

Cuban television reported the handover Monday night, the first time Castro has ceded control of the island nation in 47 years. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a close ally of Castro’s.

The Cuban leader’s secretary, Carlos Valenciaga, read a letter Monday night that he said was from the president announcing the news. In it, the Cuban leader said that stress had forced him into surgery and that he would be in bed for several weeks after the operation. Castro, who has led Cuba since the 1959 revolution, turns 80 on August 13. Castro’s brother Raul Castro, 75, is the first vice president of the country and designated successor to his brother. He also is assuming control over the armed forces and leadership of the Communist Party, according to the Cuban statement. The news sparked celebration across the Straits of Florida in Miami, home to Cuban-American exiles for more than four decades since Fidel Castro’s rise to power. The fact that Castro didn’t make the handover announcement himself raised suspicions among many Cuban-Americans, including Sen Mel Martinez, R-Florida.

“I think it is possible he may be very ill or dead,” said Martinez, who was born in Cuba before the revolution. “I don’t think there would be an announcement such as this unless it were very clear that he was incapacitated beyond recovery in the short term.”

Martinez said the United States has a plan to prevent any mass migration “in either direction” across the Florida Straits. In 2003, President George W Bush appointed him co-chairman of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. Martinez added that it would be important to keep any outside forces from interfering with Cuban affairs, including Venezuela and the United States.

“This is a matter for the Cuban people to resolve,” he said. “But I think it is also important for us that we be available to listen to voices within Cuba that may speak a different tune.”

South Florida’s Cuban-American community of about 650,000 is the largest part of Florida’s fast-growing Hispanic population, with its influence felt across the state, according to the AP.