Raúl Castro’s only son and personal adviser, Colonel Castro Espín is in charge of coordinating the military’s and Interior Ministry’s intelligence services.

...General Rodríguez López-Callejas is the father of two of Mr. Castro’s grandchildren...As president of Gaesa, a holding company that controls the military’s business interests, General López-Callejas is one of the island’s most powerful men. Analysts estimate that Gaesa’s holdings – which include the two largest hotel and tourism groups as well as telecommunications concerns, convenience stores and gas stations – account for about 40 percent of the economy.

...Maria Castro Espin...Raúl Castro’s outspoken daughter is a sexologist who has fought successfully to expand gay rights. She became a member of the country’s parliament in 2013, and her liberal bent and candor have led some in Cuba to wonder if she is destined for a greater role.

Sounds like a Trump-style dynasty.

What about Fidel's son Fidelito? The first NY Times article says:

The younger Mr. Castro lived in Cuba until, years later, he was sent to the Soviet Union to study. He became a physicist, married a Russian woman and eventually returned to Cuba, where he was named head of Cuba’s nuclear power program.

Fidel has another five sons living in Cuba: Alexis, Alexander, Alejandro, Antonio and Ángel.

Fidel Castro died on the 17th anniversary of the day Elian Gonzalez was found floating on a raft near Florida. He was the sole survivor of a boat that had capsized after leaving Cuba en route to Miami. His mother, stepfather and 9 others died.

Fidel Castro led marches calling for Elian's return to his father in Cuba. His relatives would not let him go. Here's a photo of Elian walking to school in Miami with his relatives. On April 22, 2000, Janet Reno sent armed federal officials into his relatives' home who seized him from a closet and fired tear gas on the crowd outside. The iconic photo of his seizure is here.

Elian became a national fixation while his case made its way through the courts, which ultimately upheld his return to Cuba. On June 28, 2000, he returned to Cuba to live with his father. He has thrived there, giving several interviews over the past few years, solid in his support of Cuba and Fidel and Raul Castro.

Elian Gonzalez is credited as one of the reasons Al Gore lost the vote in Florida in 2000. Although he broke with Clinton and suggested Elian be allowed to remain with his relatives in Miami (and later that the family courts handle it) some voters viewed this as pandering to the Cuban-American vote, while other Cuban Americans were insistent on Demomcratic payback for seizing Elian. (The punishment vote, or "el voto castigo.") Gore got 70,000 fewer votes than Clinton did four years earlier. The Cuban vote in Miami later reversed itself and went heavily for Obama in both 2008 and 2012.

In an interview with ABC last year, Elian said he would like to visit the U.S. some time -- and that Fidel Castro has called him every year on his birthday. He praised Castro:

"I am his friend but above all i consider him my father, my grandfather,” Elian said. “Fidel, he is an incredible person. Everyone has his own opinion. It is somewhat difficult to refer to Fidel, because everyone thinks of Fidel as a god or those who rejects him call him the devil. But I’ve known one side of Fidel and what I have left to say is he is a normal person. He is a friend. He's someone you can share with, you can laugh with.”

He denied he was brainwashed.

“If they have a way to prove it I invite them to come and run the test on me,” he said. “But I decided to be the way I am because instead of seeing this as a communist, or as a political issue. I believe that everything Fidel has done...Simply I came to know Fidel. I began to see his kindness. The incredible person that is behind him and that is how my character was shaped up,” he said. “I came to realize by myself what was going on.”

Some photos:

• Elias and his father leaving DC for Cuba
• Elias and Fidel Castro (in 2005 at an event commemorating his return to Cuba)
• Elias and Raul Castro (In 2010 at an event commemorating the 10th anniversary of his return to Cuba)
• Elian in 2016 (with a beard)

Will Trump reverse Obama's executive orders and other regulations re-establishing ties with Cuba? I doubt it. There are too many U.S. business dollars already invested there.

And who is surprised learn that in 1998, Trump allegedly broke the embargo law by exploring business opportunities in Cuba (using another company's name)? Newsweek has the details:

A company controlled by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro’s presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings.

Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 foray into Cuba at a time when the corporate expenditure of even a penny in the Caribbean country was prohibited without U.S. government approval. But the company did not spend the money directly. Instead, with Trump’s knowledge, executives funneled the cash for the Cuba trip through an American consulting firm called Seven Arrows Investment and Development Corp. Once the business consultants traveled to the island and incurred the expenses for the venture, Seven Arrows instructed senior officers with Trump’s company—then called Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts—how to make it appear legal by linking it after the fact to a charitable effort.

....The payment by Trump Hotels came just before the New York business mogul launched his first bid for the White House, seeking the nomination of the Reform Party. On his first day of the campaign, he traveled to Miami, where he spoke to a group of Cuban-Americans, a critical voting bloc in the swing state. Trump vowed to maintain the embargo and never spend his or his companies’ money in Cuba until Fidel Castro was removed from power. He did not disclose that, seven months earlier, Trump Hotels already had reimbursed its consultants for the money they spent on their secret business trip to Havana.

... Without obtaining a license from the federal Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) before the consultants went to Cuba, the undertaking by Trump Hotels would have been in violation of federal law, trade experts say.

...The goal of the Cuba trip, the former Trump executive says, was to give Trump’s company a foothold should Washington loosen or lift the trade restrictions. While in Cuba, the Trump representatives met with government officials, bankers and other business leaders to explore possible opportunities for the casino company. The former executive says Trump had participated in discussions about the Cuba trip and knew it had taken place.

....Shortly after Trump Hotels reimbursed Seven Arrows, the two companies parted ways. Within months, Trump formed a presidential exploratory committee. He soon decided to seek the nomination of the Reform Party, which was founded by billionaire Ross Perot after his unsuccessful 1992 bid for the White House.

...Trump launched his presidential campaign in Miami in November 1999. There, at a luncheon hosted by the Cuban American National Foundation, an organization of Cuban exiles, he proclaimed he wanted to maintain the American embargo and would not spend any money in Cuba so long as Fidel Castro remained in power. At the time, disclosing that his company had just spent money on the Cuba trip, or even acknowledging an interest in loosening the embargo, would have ruined Trump’s chances in Florida, a critical electoral state where large numbers of Cuban-Americans remain virulently opposed to the regime.

“As you know—and the people in this room know better than anyone—putting money and investing money in Cuba right now doesn’t go to the people of Cuba,’’ Trump told the crowd. “It goes to Fidel Castro. He’s a murderer. He’s a killer. He’s a bad guy in every respect, and, frankly, the embargo must stand if for no other reason than, if it does stand, he will come down.”

Why would Trump allegedly lie to Cuban American voters in 1999? Maybe because his businesses were in trouble. Newsweek reports:

... Like the Communist regime, [Trump's] company was struggling, having piled up losses for years. In 1998 alone, Trump Hotels lost $39.7 million, according to the company’s financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its stock price had collapsed, falling almost 80 percent from a high that year of $12 a share to a low of just $2.75. (After multiple bankruptcies, Trump severed his ties with the company; it is now called Trump Entertainment Resorts and is a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises, run by renowned financier Carl Icahn.)

Fidel Castro's funeral is set for Dec. 4, following a period of public mourning. President Obama said:

"At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people," he said in a statement, noting his administration had "worked hard to put the past behind us."

I could care less what Donald Trump says today about Castro. He changes with the wind. If he thinks there's an opportunity in Cuba for the Trump Org. to make money, he'll probably be nice to Cubans. No one yet knows if he'll try to make any changes to the Cuban Adjustment Act.

From London's Sunday Observer:

To the end, Castro remained a polarizing figure. For many he was a champion of the poor who along with Ernesto “Che” Guevara made violent revolution a romanticised ideal, a symbol of liberation who overthrew a dictator and brought free education and healthcare to the masses. To exiles who longed for Castro’s demise he personified a regime that locked up political opponents, suppressed civil liberties and destroyed the island’s economy. But, there is no denying that Castro played an out-size role on the world stage for much of the 20th century, all from an island, smaller than the US state of Pennsylvania.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called Castro "a friend of Mexico, a promoter of a bilateral relation based on respect, dialogue and solidarity."

Here is the Havana Times.

Whatever you thought of Fidel Castro, he has just died, and this site has a long-standing policy of not name-calling or celebrating the occasion of one's death. While the news reports that Miami's Cuban community is rejoicing, there is sadness in Cuba and other Latin American countries. He was not universally reviled, and he is recognized as having made improvements in Cuba in education, literacy and health. Here is the statement of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Here's the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau (which has received a fair share of criticism.)

The reality is that Fidel Castro has not been in charge in Cuba for a very long time. His brother is soon to leave power. What happens next in Cuba should reflect and respect the views of Cubans who live there -- the U.S. should not try to remold the island with its brand of "freedom and democracy" or capitalism.