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Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary, “who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and for five decades defied U.S. efforts to topple him”, died late on Friday according to Reuters. Castro had been in poor health since an intestinal ailment that almost took his life back in 2006, and caused him to formally retire in 2008.
His brother, Raul Castro, announced his death at 10:29pm on Cuban State TV. Fidel Castro made his last official appearance before the country’s Communist party last April and predicted that his death was near. In his address, Fidel mentioned his upcoming birthday and said that “soon I’ll be like all the others.” According to the New Yorker, many of the Communist Party delegates present wept as they listened to him.
“Fidel’s allusion to his own death was significant—it was something that he had rarely ever discussed publicly before,” Jon Lee Anderson from the New Yorker said. After being in power for decades since 1959, when he ousted the dictator Fulgencio Batista, until his resignation eight years ago, Cubans had followed his cue, considering him to be as close as immortal as one could get.
But last night after the news, large crowds of Cubans and Cuban exiles gathered in Miami to celebrate his death in the streets of Miami as well as in bordering cities, chanting and waving the Cuban flag in the street.
The country of Cuba has declared nine days of national mourning, on the other hand, according to CNN. The moods in the cities of Miami and Havana could not be any more different from each other.
CNN released the schedule for the number of events that will take place over the next week in Cuba following the death of Castro:
Monday-Tuesday
9 a.m. – 10 p.m. ET: At designated sites in Havana and throughout the country, Cubans will have a chance to pay tribute to Castro.
Tuesday
7 p.m. ET: Rally at Jose Marti Memorial in Havana’s Revolution Square
Wednesday-Saturday
Castro’s ashes will be transported about 900 km (560 miles) from Havana to Santiago de Cuba in what officials are calling a “Caravan of Freedom.”
Saturday
7 p.m. ET — Rally in Santiago de Cuba
Sunday
7 a.m. ET – Burial at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery