MIAMI (AP) — The streets of Little Havana came alive with chatter Tuesday as people in the heart of the Cuban exile community awoke to the news that Cuban President Fidel Castro had officially resigned power.

Motorists honked vigorously at police patrol cars and television reporters as they waited for local eateries to open. Small groups chatted on the streets.

Ulises Colina, a 65-year-old electrical technician, said he was not certain if the resignation would bring any change to the communist island or the U.S. ''I think it was a foregone conclusion that his political career would be over soon,'' Colina said.

Colina theorized that any change in Cuba would have to come from within the military.

''Changes? Well, he's the leader of the gang but he has a bunch of auxiliary gang members who don't want to see change,'' Colina said.

Most exiles view Castro as a ruthless dictator who forced them, their parents or grandparents from their home after he seized power in a revolution in 1959. Authorities said the community's reaction so far was calm, peaceful and not as boisterous as when thousands took to the streets after Castro temporarily handed power to his brother Raul in July 2006.

Police said they were ''keeping a sharp eye'' on Little Havana, but residents weren't gathering in large numbers to celebrate. Nothing indicated a need for increased patrols off Florida or that a mass migration was imminent, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil.

About 1.5 million Cubans and Cuban-Americans live in the U.S., two-thirds of them in Florida, and the majority in Miami-Dade County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Since they began arriving, the Miami area has become a mostly Hispanic, bustling city that is a hub for international trade and finance, but also deals with poverty. What was once a city marked by Southern drawls in English transformed into a place where Spanish is spoken everywhere.