Flag-waving Cuban students broke into a mass chant of “I am Fidel” to salute former Cuban president Fidel Castro as nine days of mourning began for the combative Cold War icon, who dominated the island’s political life for generations.
Alcohol sales were suspended, flags flew at half-staff and shows and concerts were canceled after his younger brother and successor, Cuban President Raul Castro, told the country on Friday that Fidel had died at 10:29pm, without giving a cause of death.
Giant rallies are planned in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion and in the eastern city of Santiago to honor Fidel Castro, who died aged 90, six decades after the brothers set out from Mexico to overthrow US-backed former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista.
Photo: Reuters
Newspapers on the island of 11 million people were printed in black ink to mourn Fidel, instead of the usual red of the official Cuban Communist Party daily Granma, and the blue of Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), the paper of Cuba’s Young Communist League.
There was no heightened military or police presence to mark the passing of the epochal revolutionary leader, and at Havana University, Castro’s alma mater, hundreds of students gathered to wave huge Cuban flags and shout “Viva Fidel and Viva Raul.”
“Fidel isn’t dead because the people are Fidel,” shouted a local student leader dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt.
“I am Fidel,” he continued, a refrain quickly adopted by the crowd.
“Fidel put Cuba on the map, and made Cuba a paradigm for the people of the world, especially the poor and the marginalized,” said another university student, Raul Alejandro Palmeros.
Castro studied law at the university in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when it was a hotbed of leftist politics, setting him on the path that led to his toppling of Batista in 1959.
Under Castro, bitter diplomatic conflict with the US followed, and Cuba quickly became a firm ally of the Soviet Union, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
However, despite years of ideological strife and increasing hardship under a US economic embargo, Castro’s Cuba became renowned for high education standards and world-class doctors.
“What Fidel did with education and free health stands out on the world stage. It was unique,” said Rene Perez, 78, a retired accountant and Communist Party member. “It’s his main legacy.”
Streets were quiet following the news and some normally busy restaurants were all but empty, but Castro’s death did not bring daily life in Havana to a complete halt.
Castro’s remains were cremated and his ashes are to be taken around Cuba until a state funeral on Sunday. Western diplomatic officials said foreign dignitaries are to arrive tomorrow for a memorial service due to be held in Plaza de la Revolucion that evening.
Formally handing over power to Raul in 2008, he remained a major presence on the island and regularly warned the Cuban population about the perils of giving in to the US.
“Everyone here is sad. Everyone is a Fidelista,” said Anaida Gonzales, a retired nursing professor in central Camaguey Province. “People are just going about their business, but sad. Me, I’m very sad for my commandante, it really took me by surprise.”
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