Good news finally in Latin America- Hugo Chavez is dead. This will trigger a special election 30 days hence, and one hopes his successor will either want, or be forced, to end Venezuela's absurd subsidies to Communist Cuba.

If that happens, the Castro crime family will have little choice, but come to the United States and beg for trade and investment, lest the country collapse. President Obama and his Secretary of State must not be allowed to let bygones be bygones, and forget about free elections and political prisoners. Whenever the Castro brothers get into big trouble, like with what is coming now, they threaten a refugee crisis, as they did in the 1980 Mariel Boatlift and as they talked up in 1994. But we should treat any such threats this time around as an act of war. There is no Soviet Union to protect the Castro regime, or even a functioning Cuban military worthy of the name; its air force is largely grounded and its navy sits rusting at dock.

At the moment of truth, all that is required of the United States is a little firmness, and the Castro government will fall like East Germany's communist regime did in 1989. And there is no better man in American public life right now to demand that firmness than Sen. Marco Rubio. History has a way of thrusting forward great men for the times. The demise of Communist Cuba will be a truly historic occurrence. For it to take place this year, a strong, articulate voice of freedom is needed, to sweep aside all the equivocators and compromisers; a son of Cuba and America that can in both Spanish and English insist our policy is to end the wretched regime off our shore.

Sure, right now the young Senator is up to his eyeballs in what may be a quixotic immigration reform effort. As the lefties figure out they hate Rubio's compromise ideas and remember the reasons Sen. Obama killed immigration reform back in 2007, that issue may fade away pretty soon, anyway.

But there are much greater events unfolding, events which to end properly, demand the right man for the job. Just like Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, Marco Rubio can come forward now and seize the moral high ground and boldly proclaim- 2013 should be the last year of Cuban dictatorship- America and decent people around the world expect nothing less.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, Ky.