Allies join huge tribute to Castro
CUBA: Cuba’s leftist allies and Washington’s top diplomat in Havana joined a sprawling throng of Cubans at a rally yesterday to commemorate Fidel Castro, the man who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States.
Castro died on Saturday at age 90, a decade after ceding control to his younger brother Raul, 85.
Chants of ‘‘Viva Fidel!’’ and ‘‘United, the people will never be defeated!’’ resounded as tens of thousands massed in Havana’s Revolution Square in the evening.
Raul Castro embraced his ideological ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as the ceremony got under way.
The White House announced yesterday that US President Barack Obama would not send a presidential delegation. Instead, the US was represented by Jeffrey Delaurentis, chief diplomat at the US embassy in Havana, and Ben Rhodes, an Obama aide who represented the US in 18 months of secret talks that led to detente.
Many leaders of Latin America’s Left, including Maduro, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales, flew in to attend the ceremony in the same space where Fidel Castro once delivered rousing marathon speeches.
African leaders included Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and South African President Jacob Zuma, who paid Castro a tribute of his own. The late Nelson Mandela repeatedly thanked Castro for his efforts in helping to overturn apartheid in South Africa.
Mugabe, 92, himself a former Marxist guerrilla, praised Castro’s government for having trained thousands of Zimbabwean doctors and teachers.
Few leaders from the world’s major powers attended, with many sending second-tier officials instead. China sent Vice-president Li Yuanchao, while President Xi Jinping visited the Cuban embassy in Beijing to pay his condolences, China’s foreign ministry said
Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped the ceremony but has described Castro as a ‘‘true friend of Russia’’.
A caravan carrying Castro’s ashes will leave Havana today en route to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, his final resting place, in a reversal of the journey he took with the rebel army that overthrew Us-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
– Reuters