Final curtain down on symbol of an era

 

Havana / AFP

Cuba’s historic revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died late Friday aged 90, after defying the United States during a half-century of iron-fisted rule and surviving the eclipse of global communism.
One of the world’s longest-serving rulers and modern history’s most singular characters, Castro defied 11 US administrations and hundreds of assassination attempts.
His younger brother, President Raul Castro, announced the news shortly after midnight (0500 GMT Saturday) but gave no details of the cause of death. Fidel Castro crushed opposition at home from the moment he took power in 1959 to lead the communist Caribbean island through the Cold War. He stepped aside only in 2006 after intestinal surgery.
For defenders of the revolution, Castro was a hero who defended the ordinary people against capitalist domination. For his opponents, including thousands of Cubans resident in the United States, he was a cruel tyrant.
Castro eventually lived to see the restoration of diplomatic ties with Washington last year.
“The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening,” the president announced on national television just after midnight Friday (0500 GMT Saturday).
“In compliance with Comrade Fidel’s expressed will, his remains will be cremated early in the morning” on Saturday, said Raul Castro, who took power after his elder brother Fidel was hospitalized in 2006.
The government on Saturday decreed nine days of mourning.
From November 26 to December 4, “public activities and shows will cease, the national flag will fly at half mast on public buildings and military installations,” a statement from the state executive said. Castro’s ashes will be buried in the southeastern city of Santiago on December 4 after a four-day procession through the country, it added. Santiago was the scene of Castro’s first revolution attempt in 1953.
‘Symbol of an era’
Castro’s death drew strong reactions from world leaders.
“The name of this distinguished statesman is rightly considered the symbol of an era in modern world history,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telegram to Raul Castro.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev hailed Castro for “strengthening” Cuba in the face of US pressure.
He said the late leader left a “deep mark in the history of mankind.”
French President Francois Hollande said Castro “represented, for Cubans, pride in rejecting external domination.” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Cuba’s main ally in the region, said on Twitter: “It is up to us to continue his legacy and carry his flag of independence.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his “deepest condolences” to Cuba. “India mourns the loss of a great friend,” he wrote on Twitter.
Other powers had yet to react early Saturday. In Havana, car washer Marco Antonio Diez, 20, said he was out at a party when the music stopped and he heard the news. “I went home and woke up everyone, saying: ‘Fidel has died.’ My mother was astonished,” he said. In the streets of Miami, home to the bulk of the US Cuban community, euphoric crowds waved flags and danced, banging on pots and drums.

Political survivor
The bearded, cigar-puffing leader, renowned for trademark army fatigues and hours-long public tirades, grabbed power in a January 1, 1959 revolution.
Living by the slogan “socialism or death,” he kept the faith to the end, even as the Cold War came and went.
He endured hundreds of assassination attempts, according to his aides, and the disastrous US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion attempt in 1961.
“If I am considered a myth, the United States deserves the credit,” he said in 1988. Castro was at the center of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, as the world stood on the brink of nuclear war until the Soviet Union blinked in its bid to station strategic missiles on Cuban soil. Well into his old age, Castro unleashed furious diatribes against Washington until he was slowed by surgery in July 2006.

Revolution
An energetic symbol of defiance for developing countries and a driving force behind the Non-Aligned Movement, Castro proved even a small sovereign nation could thumb its nose at the world’s biggest superpower.
Born August 13, 1926 to a prosperous Spanish immigrant landowner and a Cuban mother of humble background, Castro was a quick learner and a keen baseball player.
His political path was set when he formed a guerrilla opposition to the US-backed government of Fulgencio Batista, who seized power in a 1952 coup. In 1953 Castro led a small rebel force that attacked a major military base, the Moncada Barracks, in a bid to oust Batista. The drive failed. Castro was put on trial, and in a self-defense speech said he did not care if was convicted. “History will absolve me,” he said. After two years of prison Castro went into exile in Mexico and organized followers for their ultimately triumphant uprising.
It was launched when, on December 2, 1956 they sailed to southeastern Cuba on the ship Granma. Twenty-five months later, they ousted Batista and Castro was named prime minister.
His power undisputed in 1959, Castro threw Cuba’s lot in with the Soviet Union, which bankrolled his regime until 1989, when the Eastern Bloc’s collapse sent Cuba’s economy plunging. Fidel ceded power to his younger brother Raul, now 85, in July 2006 when the revolutionary icon underwent intestinal surgery and disappeared from public view.

Party in Miami as news of death spreads 

Miami / AFP

To the cries of “Cuba Libre!” and “Freedom! Freedom!” Cuban-Americans poured into the streets of Miami early Saturday to celebrate the death of their nemesis Fidel Castro.
Revelers, many of whom were exiled by Cuba’s communist regime, honked car horns, banged on pots and drums, and danced, cried, and waved Cuban flags in a wave of communal euphoria.
Castro died late Friday in Havana, Cuban President Raul Castro announced on national television around midnight local time.
While news was just getting around in Cuba, in Miami—home to the largest concentration of Cuban-Americans in the United States—the news spread like wildfire.
“It’s sad that one finds joy in the death of a person—but that person should never have been born,” said Pablo Arencibia, 67, a teacher who fled Cuba 20 years ago.
“Satan is now the one who has to worry,” because “Fidel is heading there and is going to try to get his job,” joked Arecibia, who could barely be heard over the din of honking horns and banging pots.
Thick crowds poured into the streets of Little Havana and Hialeah—the Miami neighborhoods where many Cuban exiles settled—to dance, hug, and exchange comments like “it took so long,” and “now only Raul is missing.” Some sang the Cuban national anthem. Others shook up bottles of champagne and sprayed the fizz onto the crowd of revelers.
The late-breaking news roused some people out of bed, who joined the street party half-dressed in pajamas.
“Cuba Libre”—Free Cuba—has been a rallying cry for the exile community ever since the Castro brothers took over Cuba in 1959. The rum and Coke drink of the same name, however predates the Castro regime.

Vietnam, China lament loss of ‘comrade’ 

Hanoi / AFP

Communist heavyweights China and Vietnam were swift on Saturday to lament the death of Fidel Castro, with Hanoi’s state media leading tributes to the loss of a “great friend and comrade”.
Under the stewardship of Castro, the cigar-chomping socialist figurehead who died on Saturday aged 90, Cuba showed solidarity with communist Vietnam in its war against US invaders.
State-controlled media in the Southeast Asian nation was awash with tributes to Castro, who led his country from 1959 to 2008 when he handed over power to his younger brother Raul.
Mourning Castro’s death the Vietnam News Agency said “for all Vietnamese, Fidel was a great friend, a comrade and a very close brother”.
It added that he had been “a pure symbol of true internationalism in the fight for independence of nations.” Bearded Castro, a thorn in America’s side, first visited Vietnam in 1973 as a sign of communist kinship two years before the north drove out the US army.
As a sign of those enduring ties, Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang was among the last heads of state to visit the firebrand Cuban revolutionary, meeting Castro on November 16.
The adoration extends to the Vietnamese public.
Pham Tran Van, an army colonel during the Vietnam war, said of his admiration for Castro as a “true communist.”
“Fidel Castro was like our President Ho Chi Minh. He was the symbol of the endless struggle for …. freedom,” the 78-year-old added.
Ties between communist China and Cuba warmed especially following the collapse of Soviet Russia, the Castro government’s biggest sponsor.China Central Television (CCTV) ran a commentary, explaining that Cuba was “the first country in the Western hemisphere” to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing.
“Fidel Castro admired Mao Zedong and… regretted not being able to get to know him,” added the commentary, describing the two nations as “good comrades”.
Castro visited China for the first time in 1995.

Putin praises Castro as ‘symbol of an era’: Kremlin 

Moscow / AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Fidel Castro, the socialist Cuban icon who has died aged 90, as the “symbol of an era,” the Kremlin said in a statement on 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.”
Putin added that Castro has managed to build a “free and independent Cuba” that “became an influential member of the international community and served as an inspiration for many countries and peoples.”
The Kremlin strongman hailed Castro as a “strong and wise person who always looked to the future with confidence.”
“He embodied the high ideals of a politician, a citizen and a patriot sincerely convinced of the rightness of the cause to which he dedicated his whole life,” Putin said.
“His memory will forever remain in the hearts of the citizens of Russia.”
Putin also said that Castro had made a “huge personal contribution” in the establishment and development of the countries’ bilateral relations.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev hailed Castro for strengthening his island nation.
President Raul Castro, who took power after his elder brother Fidel was hospitalised in 2006, said that the revolutionary leader’s remains will be cremated early on Saturday.