Castro is going the way of Franco...
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!
There is only one problem with Castro dying: He can only do it once.
Well, I would like to hope that Cuba post-Casto will go the way of Spain post-Franco (ie evolve fairly quickly and peacefully into a normal, modern country) but I think that may be optimistic. Communism can be hard to get out of the national system.
Plus the basic economic reforms were carried out in the last decade of Franco's rule, so, unless Castro gets cracking right away, any sort of similar timeline is more or less inconceivable.
And does Cuba have a Juan Carlos type figure? I can't think of one.
tomWright,
Dunno. Arafat managed to turn his death into a five act opera. At one point he was in a Schrodinger's cat type state.