Will the change in name at the top alter anything else significant in the nation? joining me are two people who know that nation well. the author of cuba: what everyone needs to know and research fellow at the lbj school of public affairs. and john paul rathbone, editor and author of sugar: king of havana. let me ask you, julia. is this a symbolic change, or is it more than that. look, fareed, clearly it s a symbolic change. but it has to be more than that. if we take a look at the goodbye speech that raul castro gave on thursday, and then the hello speech, the inaugural address of the new president, diaz-cannel, what we heard was both continuity and change. so, of course, symbolic that both castro brothers, one is no longer with us, the other stepped aside, the matter of continuity that was so intensely
New era dawned on thursday when miguel diaz canel was sworn in as cuba s new president. will it alter anything else significant in the nation? joining muss are julia swage, and research fellow he lbj school of public affairs, and paul rathbone is the author of sugar, king of havana. julia, is this symbolic or more? clearly it s a symbolic change, but it has to be more than that, if we look at the good-bye speech that raul castro gave on thursday and then the inaugural address of the new president diaz canel, what we heard was both continuity and
On the island, and many are related to looting. i hate to use the term looting because we think of people going into stores and robbing. it s not what s happening. people are going for food and water. it is a lawless situation, according to the dutch government. they ve put troops in the city to try to restore what they can. this was the first category 5 storm to hit cuba since 1932. they evacuated a million people off of the key islands of north earn cuba. this is what, in many ways, slowed irma down. we are expecting a cat 4 or cat 5 landfall from irma. cuba slowed it down. the pictures are from havana. the flooding came in six blocks into the city of havana, surrounded the u.s. embassy up to waist-high water. a difficult scene. as we ve heard, at least ten people killed in cuba. it was interesting to listen to the interview you all did with
The northern keys of cuba. these were 125-mile-an-hour sustained winds. this was the first category 5 storm to hit cuba since 1932. a lot of the area that was hit are these one-story buildings. you can imagine the damage that was taken there. the flooding then went into havana. some video from havana. this storm surge came in about five blocks. it came into the u.s. embassy. it surrounded that entire area. and it s waist deep water at the very least for five blocks into the city of havana. here s what i don t like. we haven t heard specifics out of cuba. we haven t heard a death toll or anything from the florida keys. marco island. we haven t heard cape coral. we re not seeing those images. so we have this lag time here, and while it s 2017 and the technology is instantaneous and we want it right away, the storm was incredibly powerful. and, bill, it probably weakened.
We turn our attention to cuba following the death of fidel castro. this is where the communist leader ashes will remain for two days. activities started today. 21 gun salute on the island of two largest city of havana and santiago. it is one of many events during the nine day morniurning. joining me now is lincoln pollard. sir, it is good to have you with me. my thoughts and prayers to the students of ohio university and my admiration to first responders and everyone. we have been watching for generations now of the healing that needs to take place for cuban americans as you are born in havana and you are a nephew of fidel castro. you left the regime after he chased your family left the