Tro wonders what’s next for Cuba
munist Party member. Tears began running down her face. She said that she had been crying all morning.
“I adored him,” she said.
Miami exiles rejoice
In Miami, meanwhile, the island’s exiles and their children and grandchildren took to the streets, banging pots and pans, waving American and Cuban flags, and celebrating in Spanish: “He’s dead! He’s dead!”
In Miami’s Little Havana neighbourhood, celebrators outside of the Cuban restaurant Versailles chanted, “Fidel, take your little brother with you!”
The Miami Herald reported the mood in “the cradle of the Cuban exile community was one of pure, raw emotion. This time, after decades of false alarms, Castro’s death was real.”
Chanting “Free Cuba! Down with tyranny!” hundreds of people took to the streets of Little Havana to celebrate the death of a man whose brutal dictatorship drove them or their parents from their native Cuba.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” said Jonathan Gomez, 39, a delivery driver who came from Cuba to Miami in the 1980 mass emigration known as the Mariel boatlift. “This would have been the happiest day of my dad’s life.” Gomez said he himself was “looking forward to going back to my country one day”.
But across Latin America, lead- ers spoke mostly kind words. Some stirred with revolutionary passion; others employed more diplomatic language. All acknowledged the iconic role of the Castro in the region’s history.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto hailed Castro as “a friend of Mexico, a promoter of a bilateral relation based on respect, dialogue and solidarity”.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said that 60 years after Castro and small band of fighters set sail aboard a fishing yacht called Granma, from Mexico to Cuba, to launch the revolution, “Fidel has joined the immortals.”
Maduro – whose own revolution has imploded since the death of predecessor and Castro a lly Hugo Chávez a nd the onset of hard economic times – said Castro’s death should inspire “all us revolu- tionaries to honour his legacy.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed Castro’s dueling legacies. “A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr Castro made s i gnif i cant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation,” Trudeau said in a statement. “While a controversial figure, both Mr Castro’s supporters and detractors recognised his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for ‘el Comandante’.”
Other leaders far from Cuba paid homage. South African President Jacob Zuma thanked Castro for his support to overthrow the country’s apartheid regime. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Castro “one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century” and a “great friend” of India.
Palestinian diplomats posted photographs of Castro with exPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to the Cuban president that read in part, “The name of this distinguished statesman is rightly considered the symbol of an era in modern world history.”
President-elect DonaldTrump, on the other hand, called Castro a “brutal dictator who oppressed his people for six decades”.
“While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve,” Trump said in a statement.
Obama seemed to take the middle path. “We know that this moment fills Cubans – in Cuba and in the United States – with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of indi- vidual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him,” the president said in a statement.
Obama noted the long and acrimonious history. “For nearly six decades, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements,” he said. “During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbours and friends - bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity.”
Castro, who struggled for years with a mysterious ailment, prepared his people for his approaching death in April, while addressing the Communist Party of Cuba.
“I’ll be 90 years old soon,” Castro told his comrades. “Soon I’ll be like all the others.”
In the speech, Castro defended his legacy: “The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain as proof on this planet that if they are worked at with fervour and dignity, they can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need, and we need to fight without a truce to obtain them.”