The cuban missile crisis bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Translator yes, we were very close to the nuclear war, extremely close. And the look ahead. What it could mean for the country and its people. Busine to u. S. Businesses and tourism. Team coverage on this breaking story right now. Good morni good morning, and were de fidel castro. We want to you look at the contrasting scenes overnight. Right there on the streets of miami, you can see jubilation, members of the cuban community, many of them exiles who fled castros repressive regime celebrating in the streets. Meantime, in havana, the cuban capital, the streets quiet and empty. Fidel castro was a towering figure in both a physical and a historical sense and a controversial one in pretty much every sense. Around his revolution with his signature look and his sweeping often antiamerican oratory but he was also a tyrant whose people have fled by the thousands on rickety and overloaded boats. Castro also a persistent thorn in the side of the United States. A man who helped bring the world to the precipice of Nuclear Confrontation during the cuban missile crisis. His death comes at a very delicate moment. President obama has recently moved to normalize relations with cuba, however, incoming President Donald Trump has threatened to overturn those actions. Morning with our reporters and analysts standing by but we start here with abcs jim avila in l. A. Jim, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan. The cigar chomping, bearded firebrand who once gave a sevenhour speech is silenced this morning. Fidel castro survived multiple assassination attempts by the u. S. Government but went quietly overnight after nearly a decade of failing health. [ speaking a Foreign Language ] president raul president raul castro, announcing the death of his older brother on state television ending the broadcast echoing that infamous revolutionary mantra. [ speaking a Foreign Language ] castro remained skeptical of the u. S. Right up to his death. Defiantly commenting after president obamas historic visit that cuba will never forget what the bay of pigs invasion and does not need america. Translator i am a communist, a marxist, socialist communist. I am not afraid to say i am a communist. Reporter fidel castro was born in 1926 out of wedlock to a wealthy cuban land owner and his maid. He went to Catholic Schools and then studied law. Two passio his two passions were baseball, he was very good at it, and politics. He became an activist for the poor and working class. In 1956 after being expelled by cubas american supporter dictator fulgencio batista, castro returned secretly with 1959. The road to havana paved with glory for rebel chieftain fidel castro. Reporter in 1961, president john f. Kennedy just elected approved the cia trained invasion force of 1,300 cuban exiles who went ashore at the bay of pigs. Castro demolished them. A huge propaganda victory. In 1962 american spy planes discovered castro had let the cuba. Translator yes, we were very close to the nuclear war, extremely close. Reporter ultimately the soviets removed the missiles. Even castros critics praise his advances in health care and in education. But the inefficiency of cubas sovietstyle economy produced dissent. In 1980 more than 125,000 cubans, some expelled, many mariel boatlift. In the early 1990s the fall of the ussr cost cuba billions of dollars in soviet aid and trade leading to widespread shortages in rations. In 2006 just before intestinal surgery, he gave up power temporarily to his younger brother raul. He never took the reins again, made it official in 2008. Then suddenly in the summer of 2010 he began displaying his indomitable drive again in public. Flowers at the tomb of the fallen, exhorting the communist youth and addressing the cuban parliament. After nearly five decades in power filled with revolution, defiance and strife, castro did live to see the cuban flag raised at the u. S. Embassy in 2015 and an influx of american tourists, sports teams and rock concerts. The memorial will be what you might expect for a man who changed cuban history and dominated the island for more hell be cremated today so the body will not be lying in state, instead, castro will be memorialized by millions first in havana where the crowds will be asked to sign a loyalty to the revolution oath and then his ashes will tour the island before burial in his hometown of santiago de cuba. That will be a week from tomorrow. Jim, thank you for your reporting and cuba has been a consistent source of National Security concerns for the u. S. From the missile crisis to Elian Gonzalez to questions about our prison in Guantanamo Bay. The potential impact of castros death on american policy Going Forward lets go to washington and abcs chief Global Affairs correspondent martha raddatz. Martha, good morning to you. Good morning, dan and paula. For a generation of americans the threat from cuba was real and frightening. A tiny country just off our shores, 90 mil shores, 90 miles, with a powerful ally. From military disasters to near nuclear war, the 50year feud marked by tension and tragedy. The countrys alignment with the soviet union led to the icy International Relations with the u. S. During the cold war and the two nations newfound resentment escalated quickly. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a Nuclear Strike capability against the western hemisphere. Reporter while his allies agreed to remove their missiles, castros animosity towards the u. S. Survived. In 1999 the custody battle Elian Gonzalez playing out as castro demanded the little boys return to cuba. His mother had drowned while escaping with him to the u. S. Armed u. S. Agents forcibly removing the boy from his miami relatives, returning him to his father in cuba. And there is Guantanamo Bay, the naval base leased by the u. S. From the castro regime since 1959. After the controversial practice castro repeatedly denounced the u. S. Occupation saying the land was being used to do americas dirty work. Ten american president s tried to isolate castro and hoped for his demise. Then in 2013, this defining moment, president obama shaking hands with president raul castro at Nelson Mandelas funeral paving the way for renewed diplomatic relations. This is not merely symbolic, to substantially increase our contacts with the cuban people. Reporter in 2015 the two president s meeting again as obama calls for the 53yearold embargo to finally be lifted. And as for Guantanamo Bay naval base, the lease of those 45 square acres does not seem in any danger. It can only be dissolved by mutual agreement. Dan and paula. Martha, stand by. If you will. We want to ask you a few questions. As you reported, president obama relations with cuba but his successor, president elect donald trump, has promised to reverse that policy. Yeah, heres what trump said at a rally in miami in september. We will cancel obamas onesided cuban deal made by executive order if we do not get the deal we want and the deal that People Living in cuba and here deserve i here deserve including protecting religious and political freedom. We want to bring back in martha and abcs chief White House Correspondent jon karl in our washington bureau, and first and foremost, jon, what impact do going to have on this fluid situation . Well, he was such a symbol of the cuban revolution and such a symbol of tension between cuba and the United States that even though he has effectively been out of power for ten years, it could well have some impact on how congress looks at this. Obama wants to obama wants to u. S. Cuba policy is lift the embark bow, the trade embargo that can only be done fully by congress. Ultimately with castro gone, with fidel castro gone, there may be some lessening of the opposition the opposition there buy by and large fidel castro has not been in power for a long time. What are you hearing and whats your sense of where things in and a congress that will be thoroughly controlled by the republicans, a congress with whom he can work . Reporter well, i think, first of all, youll probably see donald trump say he really wants to study this to see whats going to happen to see how hell make any changes in what president obama has done. But this is an opportunity in a way for president elect trump to take a second look at whats going on there. I mean, fidel castro was such an iconic figure. He really defined what cuba is he has been out of power for quite a long time, and his brother has said he will give up power in 2018 when his term ends, and thats what president elect trump will really want to look towards, who is next . What comes after 2018 . Who are the younger people who might take over and possibly a more progressive movement. But, martha and jon, i mean, is there a sense and ill start with you, martha, is there a sense that raul is quite different from his brother and might be able now to have more latitude in his relations with the United States now that his older brother is gone . Reporter my sense is that raul castro wouldnt be anywhere without fidel castro, so i think there is not a great deal of change with him, and i think certainly fidel castro, even though he was out of power, had a lot of influence on his brother. You know, i would say, dan, on the actual policy coming from the United States, donald trump did promise, as you played the sound, did promise to undo what president obama had done on campaign he said that he favored lifting the embargo, he favored continued diplomatic relations so trump has been kind of all over the map on this at least during the course of the campaign. And he is correct that much of what president obamas done can be undone right away with another executive order undoing president obamas executive orders, but i dont get the sense that undoing all of that would be a top priority for president trump. I agree with martha that this is a perfect opportunity for him to say we are going to look at the situation, were going to see how things have changed and go from there. Ever the negotiator, keeping his options open. And trump specifically asking for the freeing of those political prisoners. Were going to get more into the human rights crisis in cuba but, martha and jon, we want to thank you for your insight as usual. When the news broke of castros death overnight miamis Little Havana erupted in celebration. The streets filling with people cheering the news and station wplg joins us from miami right now. Glenna, good morning to you. Reporter dan, paula, good morning. From what we call Little Havana and where im standing on southwest 8th southwest 8th street this is sort of the has been the de facto area where people through the decades have come to protest and rally all things cuba. Today, this morning for the past five or six hours it has been the scene of a huge celebration. And so many people around the country are going to look and say, well, isnt that so disrespectful celebrating a human being dying . And im here to sort of be the voice of this community to say what the celebration is about today is possibly the beginningr of freedom for cuba and that freedom is such a central theme, its a very diverse community, but very unified in coming from a place where they were not free to vote for an elected leader. Many of the people who are in the older generation who had members murdered, politically persecuted, had families who were separated for decades. Many of the later arrivals, some came in the 80s on the mariel boatlift and some chose to came in makeshift raft, thats how desperate it was for them, getting into rafts crossing the straits of florida. So many thought that this day would never come in their lifetimes because as weve heard, fidel castro had grown to be such a mythic figure, such an icon of the revolution, but this community now has a period at the end of their sentence and ready to move on to another chapter in what has been a really difficult life for so many people who have actually helped miami become what it is today. Dan, paula. So much hope there in Little Havana, glenna milberg, thank you very much from wplg for your reporting this morning. We appreciate it. In 1977, abcs barbara with fidel castro. It was fascinating and years later in 1993 Abcs Diane Sawyer interviewed him for primetime live. Here are some excerpts of their fascinating talks. Your newspa your newspapers, radio, television, motion pictures. No dissent or opposition is allowed in the public media. Translator translator we do not have your same conceptions. Our concept of freedom of the press is not yours, and i say this very honestly. I have nothing to hide. If you ask us if you ask us if a paper could appear here against socialism i could say honestly, no, it cannot appear. It would not be allowed. The government nor the people. Why . Translator in that sense, we the u. S. Do you think politically that an american president can lift the embargo an the embargo and resume relations with cuba as long as fidel castro is in power . Translator if i were the lew obstacles, i would be willing to give up not only my position and responsibilities but even my life. What i would never do is the revolution is not negotiable. Socialism is not negotiable. Sovereignty and the independence of our country are not negotiable. That i would never negotiate. Does it seem crazy to you that american president s every four years allow the American People just to vote them out of power, that they put their entire power at risk every four years . Translator i think four years is too short for any program that you want to in eight years you can do a bit more in terms of government programs. In 12 or 20 years you can do much more. Just fascinating interviews from barbara and diane right there, but we want to switch gears a little bit and take a look at the weather and for that we send things over to rob marciano. Good morning, rob. Good morning, paula. Hi, dan. Of course, the Holiday Weekend and a lot of people outside on the roads. We want to run down where the trouble spots are. Blewett pass in washington east of seattle and winds with one of several storms coming through knocked out power for a few thousand people there and weve got another storm coming and flooding rains across parts of portland and other areas of coastal oregon, as well. Our next storm coming in, san francisco, youre about to get rain and another punch behind that, this will affect the entire west coast all the way down to san diego substantial wind and rain across Southern California and then tomorrow afternoon a storm will bring mountain snow above 3,000 feet that includes the mountain passes over interstate 5 and heavy rains along that trek. So if you are traveling here in the next couple of days, just leave early and take it slow. Problems across the intermountain west. Maybe Salt Lake City and Denver Airport tomorrow and then this batch of rain getting into the nations midsection. East of the mississippi looks to be pretty good. Good saturday morning. Waking up to the temperatures in the 60s. We are front, moving to the area by noon or 1 oclock. It wont bring much cooler air but certainly drier air so it will feel much more comfortable tonight and tomorrow. Our High Temperature today is 79, and your 70 forecast looks like this. We drop into the 50s on sunday, i know you spent an extraordinary amount of time in cuba and miami and then tom llamas. Tom, your parents fled cuba. I want to start with you and, you know, we were talking this morning. This is very personal. Your parents fled but theres also this almost danger of romanticizing the revolution and what fidel castro was. Yeah, that is so true. I cant remember a time when i didnt know the name fidel castro. I mean, ive known that name as long as i since ive been alive and something thats been part of my life and my familys life. They fled mentioned, as political exiles and there is this tendency when World Leaders to die to kind of misplace this romanticism around World Leaders, but fidel castro is someone who was a tyrant, a killer, a liar and i really never realized how fortunate i was to be born in this country until i did a story that took me to the florida straits and i was embedded with the coast guard and they were intercepting cuban rafters and cuban go fast boats that were smuggling in cuban citizens and looked like on these boats, dozens of families, babies in diapers and best choice twla these families had was to put their children on a boat in the middle of the night not knowing what would happen than to live in cuba. And cuba at a distance may look beautiful, it may look mysterious, it may look nostalgic but up close it is cracked. It is faded and the people are hungry and that should be the legacy of fidel castro. There are no questions, no question that there are horrors ongoing horrors in cuba right now and, of course, for decades that you just referenced but, ron, you know, you covered you were in our miami bureau for years at abc news and youve been in cuba. There are also arguments one can make on behalf of the castro regime. Well, the Literacy Rate in cuba is one of the highest i believe in the world. The infant mortality rate i believe is as low or maybe lower than it is in this country. But as tom was saying, you know, ive been there in the late 90s and more recently earlier this year and people live in fear there of even saying the name castro out loud. Neighbors informing on them. They have these committees for the defense of the revolution where your neighbors can spy on one another. There have been economic gains in recent years, more people are making money. For people theres some Free Enterprise but its a very repressed place and