Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and for five decades defied US efforts to topple him, died on Friday. He was 90.
Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, led the tributes from world leaders after the announcement, which was greeted with shock in Havana and celebrations among expats in Miami.
“The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening,” his brother, President Raul Castro, his brother, announced with a shaking voice on national television
He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: “Hasta La Victoria Siempre!” (Towards victory, always!)
Fidel Castro has been suffering from intestinal problems since the early 2000s. In April, he told politicians that he would die soon but that the revolution’s ideals would live on.
“I’ll be 90 years old soon,” he said at the time. “Soon I’ll be like all the others.”
His brother said the revolutionary leader’s remains would be cremated early on Saturday, “in compliance with his expressed will.”
The bearded Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Fidel Castro as the “symbol of an era,” the Kremlin said in a statement Saturday.
“The name of this distinguished statesman is rightly considered the symbol of an era in modern world history,” Putin said in a telegram to Cuban President Raul Castro cited by the Kremlin.
“Fidel Castro was a sincere and reliable friend of Russia.”
Contents
A revolutionary life
He was demonised by the United States and its allies but admired by many leftists around the world, especially socialist revolutionaries in Latin America and Africa.
Transforming Cuba from a playground for rich Americans into a symbol of resistance to Washington, Castro outlasted nine U.S. presidents in power.
He fended off a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 as well as countless assassination attempts.
His alliance with Moscow helped trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13-day showdown with the United States that brought the world the closest it has been to nuclear war.
Wearing green military fatigues and chomping on cigars for many of his years in power, Castro was famous for long, fist-pounding speeches filled with blistering rhetoric, often aimed at the United States.
At home, he swept away capitalism and won support for bringing schools and hospitals to the poor. But he also created legions of enemies and critics, concentrated among Cuban exiles in Miami who fled his rule and saw him as a ruthless tyrant.
In the end it was not the efforts of Washington and Cuban exiles nor the collapse of Soviet communism that ended his rule. Instead, illness forced him to cede power to his younger brother Raul Castro, provisionally in 2006 and definitively in 2008.
Political reaction
Latin American leaders led the tributes to Castro.
Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, hailed his legacy. “To all the revolutionaries of the world, we have to continue his legacy and his flag of independence, of socialism, of homeland,” he said.
Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, said he was “a great one”. “Fidel is dead. Long live Cuba! Long live Latin America!”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted: “I lament the death of Fidel Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban revolution and emblematic reference of the 20th Century,” he said on Twitter.
Elsewhere, French President François Hollande said Castro “incarnated the Cuban revolution” in its “hopes” and its “disillusionments”.
“Fidel Castro was a figure of the 20th century. He incarnated the Cuban revolution, in the hopes that it aroused, then in the disillusionments it provoked,” he said in a statement.
“An actor in the Cold War, he was part of an era that ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. He succeeded in representing for Cubans the pride of rejecting external domination.”
He added that the controversial embargo which “punishes” Cuba should be lifted once and for all.”
“On the occasion of Fidel Castro’s death I want again to say that the embargo which punishes Cuba should be lifted definitively,” he said at a summit of French-speaking nations in Madagascar.
Fidel Castro’s death comes as relations have thawed between Cuba and the US, to which he responded:
“We don’t need the empire to give us anything.”
Castro led a coup in 1959 to overthrow the regime of the US-backed former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, and remained hostile to Washington throughout his life.
The leader of the French Communist Party, Pierre Laurent, who told French TV that the dictator had “liberated his people in 1959, at a time when the island was in some ways the brothel and the casino of rich Americans. Then he faced American imperialism… He was one of the leaders of the movement of human emancipation in the 20th century. The revolution he led took place at the time of decolonisation and was part of this movement to restore the sovereignty of peoples. That is what will remain in history.”
In Britain, former London mayor Ken Livingstone said Mr Castro was an “absolute giant of the 20th century”, and blamed the US for the restrictions on civil liberties under his leadership.
He said: “I’m sure they will, over time, move towards something like a traditional west European democracy. It could have happened a lot earlier if you hadn’t had, the entire time, a blockade by America, attempts to overthrow the regime, eight assassination attempts authorised by American presidents.”
Mr Livingstone said Cuba could reform now it was not under threat of American invasion “even if Trump goes a little bit bonkers”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “of course Fidel did things that were wrong”, adding: “Initially he wasn’t very good on lesbian and gay rights, but the key things that mattered was that people had a good education, good healthcare and wealth was evenly distributed.
“He was not living as a billionaire laundering money off into a Panamanian bank account or anything like that, he was good for the people.”
How Havana has reacted
In the capital, the death caught many people by surprise in the early hours of the morning. In Old Havana, people gathered around their radios, listening to state-run stations play revolutionary anthems and recite facts about Castro’s life.
Carlos Rodriguez, 15, was sitting in Havana’s Miramar neighbourhood when he heard that Fidel Castro had died.
“Fidel? Fidel?” he said as he slapped his head with his hand in shock. “That’s not what I was expecting. One always thought that he would last forever. It doesn’t seem true.”
“It’s a tragedy,” said Dayan Montalvo, a 22-year-old nurse. “We all grew up with him. I feel really hurt by the news that we just heard.”
Havana student Sariel Valdespino said he was “very upset”. “Whatever you want to say, he is public figure that the whole world respected and loved.”
Mariela Alonso, a 45-year-old doctor, called the retired Cuban leader “the guide for our people.”
“There will be no one else like him. We will feel his physical absence,” she said.
Cuban state television was carrying special programming celebrating the life of Castro. The programming included footage from years past of Castro giving speeches on revolutionary struggle.
Expat community
In the US, however, expat Cubans took to the streets of Miami’s Little Havana to celebrate news of the death.
Thousands of people waved Cuban flags in the air and whooped in jubilation on Calle Ocho – 8th Street, and the heart of the neighbourhood. Honking and strains of salsa music from car stereos echoed against stucco buildings, and fireworks lit up the humid night sky.
Police blocked off streets leading to Cafe Versailles, the quintessential Cuban American hotspot where strong cafecitos – sweetened espresso – were as common as a harsh word about Fidel Castro.
“Cuba si! Castro no!” they chanted, while others screamed “Cuba libre!”
At the Bay of Pigs memorial, Antonio Hernandez, 76, rode his bicycle up in a light rain and stood at the eternal flame that honors the men who tried, and failed, to wrest Cuba from Castro’s grip in 1961.
“Everybody’s happy. Now this guy won’t do any more damage,” said Hernandez, who came to Miami on the Mariel boat lift in 1980. “His brother will now go down, too. But the world has to pay attention to this, not just we Cubans.”
Not everyone celebrated though.
“I don’t celebrate. Nobody does. You can’t celebrate somebody’s death. I just hope for democracy,” said Arnold Vidallet, a 48-year-old financial adviser who was woken by relatives with the news and who went to Domino Park, in the heart of Little Havana, to witness history unfolding.
What next?
Although Raul Castro always glorified his older brother, he has changed Cuba since taking over by introducing market-style economic reforms and agreeing with the United States in December to re-establish diplomatic ties and end decades of hostility.
Six weeks later, Fidel Castro offered only lukewarm support for the deal, raising questions about whether he approved of ending hostilities with his longtime enemy.
In his final years, Fidel Castro no longer held leadership posts. He wrote newspaper commentaries on world affairs and occasionally met with foreign leaders but he lived in semi-seclusion.
His death – which would once have thrown a question mark over Cuba’s future – seems unlikely to trigger a crisis as Raul, 85, is firmly ensconced in power.
Still, the passing of the man known to most Cubans as “El Comandante” – the commander – or simply “Fidel” leaves a huge void in the country he dominated for so long. It also underlines the generational change in Cuba’s communist leadership.
Raul Castro vows to step down when his term ends in 2018 and the Communist Party has elevated younger leaders to its Politburo, including 56-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is first vice-president and the heir apparent.
Others in their 50s include Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and economic reform czar Marino Murillo.
The reforms have led to more private enterprise and the lifting of some restrictions on personal freedoms but they aim to strengthen Communist Party rule, not weaken it.
“I don’t think Fidel’s passing is the big test. The big test is handing the revolution over to the next generation and that will happen when Raul steps down,” Cuba expert Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute in Virginia said before Castro’s death.
Nine days of mourning have been declared following Castro’s death, with a funeral set for December 4.
[Source:-TELEGRAPH]
