Castro’s mourning after
Dictates right up to his grave
Fidel Castro famously micromanaged everything in Cuba — from sugar-cane production to elementaryschool textbooks — so it’s no surprise that before he died, he dictated precisely what would happen at his own funeral.
The instructions he left his younger brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, included the 7 a.m. burial of his ashes Sunday at a historic cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, on the southeastern tip of the island.
The Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, one of the oldest in the country, is the final resting place of Castro’s hero, José Marti, the 19th-century nationalist who is a symbol of the country’s struggle for independence from Spain.
Castro’s ashes are scheduled to be buried next to the Marti mausoleum, in a tomb that the Cuban government has spent the last two years constructing in secret, according to published reports.
It is the only monument to Castro on the island. Although there are many tributes to comrade-in-arms Che Guevara, there are no monuments to Fidel.
“One of the first laws of the revolution is the prohibition of naming any street, any city, any town . . . or building statues to leaders who are still alive,” declared Castro after he seized power. He famously forced an Italian sculptor to destroy a statue of him.
While it is not clear if there are plans for other monuments to Castro, the former leader’s own instructions called for nine official days of mourning. After the announcement of his death on Nov. 25, the 90year-old Fidel’s ashes were placed in a wooden casket and paraded in a gleaming green army Jeep from Havana to Santiago de Cuba.
The route, lined with thousands of mourners, traced in reverse the victorious march Castro led when his rebels made their way to Havana in January 1959.
Many foreign heads of state and government decided to skip the funeral of a man known for repressing fundamental freedoms on the island.
President Obama will not attend, instead sending Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes and the top US diplomat on the island, Jeffrey DeLaurentis.
The Russians have sent a delegation, but President Vladimir Putin decided not to attend.
Fellow dictators landed in Cuba last week for the memorial to someone they considered a hero.
“Fidel was not just your leader,” said Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe. “He was our leader and the leader of all revolutionaries. We followed him, listened to him and tried to emulate him.”