Spoke Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ, re the rumor from Cuba-watchers and from Havana sources that Fidel Castro is dead and that the Cuban regime is covering up the fact in order to prepare a transition. Mary O'Grady says the report came from a well-sourced Venezuela journalist Nelson Bocaranda last Thursday, 10 October that there would be major news of Castro's death "within seventy-two hours." This did not happen. However the facts are that Castro has not been seen or heard for some time, and everyone grew especially suspicious when there was no comment form Castro on the October 7 occasion of Hugo Chavez's re-election. Castro's son Alex commanded from the unusually ironic city of Guantanamo on Friday, October 11, "The commandante is well, going about his daily life, doing his exercises." This remark may point to the fact that Fidel Castro's dementia has worsened since last Spring and that he can no longer appear cogent in any fashion. The release of a letter signed by Castro on Wednesday October 17 is both meaningless and evasive. The regime is broken and there is no one in position to fix it, just to string out the drift. Mary O'Grady reports that the suddenly announced lifting of travel requirements for Cubans traveling off-island indicates that the regime looks to be scrambling to adjust to likely turmoil in Havana pending the Castro health status. What does it mean for America if Castro is gone? The rise and success of Cuban-American politicians and statesman such as Marco Rubio of FL and Ted Cruz of TX mean that the Cubans are in fine position to rejoin the prospering capitalist economies of the New World. There will be bumps, because Hugo Chavez has the cash and an alliance with the Devils (Iran, Syria, China) to make Cuba struggle toward the exits from Fidelista dictatorship. However the Chavez revolution is now contained by the rise of the youthful Henrique Capriles, who waits like a nimble jaguar to win the presidency when the apparently in remission Chavez succumbs to the way of all flesh several decades short of the long, depraved run of Fidel Castro.