Fidel Castro's handover of power to his brother Raul shook up Cuban-Americans and stirred Congress, but barely registered with the Bush administration.

Members of Florida's Congressional delegation and Cuban-Americans have long dreamed about the day Castro would die or step down, yet his transfer of power, while raising hopes, offered no immediate prospect for ending the 47-year-old standoff between the United States and Cuba. It left the hard-line U.S. policy rigidly in place.

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., the only Cuban-American in the Senate, called for a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba and urged Cubans not to risk their lives by taking to the sea on a mass migration for Florida.

"It would cause a tremendous loss of life," Martinez said, "plus be a disorderly thing that at this moment in history the United States just cannot tolerate."

While guarding against a rafter crisis, the main role for the United States, he said, is to block other nations, particularly Venezuela, from intervening to bolster another Castro government. source.

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