Cuba’s allies, developing countries’ leaders pay homage to Castro
HAVANA: Leaders of Cuba’s leftist allies and other developing countries descended on Havana yesterday for a mass rally commemorating Fidel Castro, the rebel who seized power in a 1959 revolution and ruled the island for half a century.
Castro, who ceded control to his younger brother Raul Castro a decade ago due to poor health, died on Friday at the age of 90, leaving behind a mixed legacy.
For many, especially in Latin America and Africa, he was a symbol of resistance to imperialism, having ousted a US-backed dictator, and a champion of the poor. Others condemned him as a tyrant whose socialism ran the economy to ruin.
Cuba announced nine days of mourning after his death, including the mass rally yesterday evening in Revolution Square – where Castro once held fiery, marathon speeches.
Many leaders of Latin America’s left, including Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Bolivian President Evo Morales, were to attend the ceremony.
Shortly after landing in Havana, Maduro paid tribute to Fidel’s “immortal force”. Also to attend were several African leaders such as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma. Nelson Mandela, while he was still alive, repeatedly thanked Castro for his efforts in helping to weaken apartheid in South Africa.
China is sending Vice-President Li Yuanchao. Yesterday in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Cuban embassy to pay his condolences, saying China had lost a “close comrade and real friend”.
Yet few leaders from the world’s major powers are heading to the Caribbean island, with many sending second tier officials instead to pay their respects to a man who built a Communist state on the doorstep of the US. All schools and government offices were closed yesterday so that Cubans could join the rally and other activities to pay homage to Castro. Yesterday morning, they had their last chance to pass by a portrait of the late leader, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a rifle, erected in a memorial to Cuban independence hero Jose Marti in Revolution Square. Tens of thousands already did so on Monday, some in tears and others wrapped in the red, white and blue national flag. Many state employees and pupils came together in groups.
Raul Castro and his top lieutenants held a separate, private ceremony on Monday, laying flowers in front of Fidel Castro’s portrait. Cubans have also been urged to sign condolence books and pledges of loyalty to Castro’s socialist ideology at 1060 tribute sites throughout the country. “I signed because he was a good man, we loved him a lot, and I wanted to reaffirm my loyalty to him and his ideas,” said Arcide Ge, 56, a security guard. “He was good, he sent doctors abroad and helped the poor here.”
Today, Castro’s ashes will begin a procession across the country towards Santiago de Cuba, where he launched the revolution. They will be buried on Sunday, in the city’s Santa Ifigenia cemetery.
HAVANA: Fidel Castro’s ideals are far from fading after his death and they would be bolstered instead, many Cubans said.
The Cuban leader died late Friday at the age of 90. But, to many Cubans, the social and political system Castro put in place will continue to promote the wellbeing of all Cubans.
“The overwhelming grief and sadness we feel today, we will convert into a revolutionary fervour to continue the struggle and defence of Fidel’s great work in Cuba and around the world,” said Armando Lopez, a retired general and former Interior Ministry official.
The Cubans converged on Monday on Havana’s Revolution Square to pay tribute to their beloved former leader.
Among them was Eloisa Ricardo, who was accompanied by her daughter and twoyear-old granddaughter.
“The suffering we feel today gives us the strength to live up to his expectations now more than ever, because he may not be here in person, but he is in our hearts,” said Ricardo.
Her daughter Yanet Rodriguez said she brought her little girl “because she represents Cuba’s future, and I want her to see how much Fidel represents, and to gradually understand what she needs to do to help the revolution”.
Teresa Gonzalez, a public sector employee, vowed that she and many others, with their firm belief that Castro’s teachings represent the right path to national development, will continue to promote them. “I will make an effort so that all my descendants, and the young people that I meet throughout my life, learn about his work and value his ideas… We will carry on the struggle and I can affirm that we will advance,” promised Gonzalez.
Sofia Rodriguez, a high school pupil, hoped Cuba will “continue as it is and if it changes, to change for the better, to prosper to fulfil Fidel’s dream”. Hundreds of young Cuban doctors gathered in the square to pay their respects to Castro, who raised the country’s health sector to the world’s top level and engineered a foreign policy that came to be known as “medical diplomacy”.
Michel Garcia, a gastroenterologist, said he was grief-stricken, “but I am leaving here convinced that Fidel will live on forever, because we were educated under him and we are going to continue to heed him”.
He said Cuba’s medical community “will continue to spread the solidarity he instilled in us to all corners of the planet and, with our white coats we will champion his legacy of peace and humanism”.
The queues of people waiting to pay tribute to Castro on Monday were so long that officials considered extending visiting hours. – Xinhua