Viva Fidel! Cubans begin mourning for Castro

Havana, November 27 

Flag-waving Cuban students broke into a mass chant of  “I am Fidel” to salute Fidel Castro as nine days of mourning began for the combative Cold War icon, who dominated the Communist island's political life for generations.

Alcohol sales were suspended, flags flew at half-staff and shows and concerts were canceled after his younger brother and successor, President Raul Castro, told the country on Friday that Fidel had died at 10:29 pm, without giving a cause of death.

Giant rallies are planned in Havana's Revolution Square and in the eastern city of Santiago to honor Castro, who died aged 90, six decades after the brothers set out from Mexico to overthrow US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Newspapers on the island of 11 million people were printed in black ink to mourn Fidel, instead of the usual red of the official Communist Party daily Granma, and the blue of Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), the paper of the Communist youth.

“For me, it’s my mother first, my children, my father, then Fidel,” father-of-five Rafael Urbay, 60, said as he manned a government photo and printing store in downtown Havana, remembering his early years spent on a remote island off the mainland with no drinking water.

There was no heightened military or police presence to mark the passing of the epochal revolutionary leader, and at Havana University, Castro’s alma mater, hundreds of students gathered to wave huge Cuban flags and shout “Viva Fidel and Viva Raul.” “Fidel isn’t dead because the people are Fidel,” shouted a local student leader dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt. “I am Fidel,” he continued, a refrain quickly adopted by the crowd.

Under Castro, bitter diplomatic conflict with the US followed, and Cuba quickly became a firm ally of the Soviet Union, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Yet despite years of ideological strife and increasing hardship under a US economic embargo, Castro’s Cuba became renowned for high education standards and world-class doctors. Apart from the chanting students, Havana life went on largely as normal, only quieter and more subdued following the news of Castro’s death. Street vendors sold food and handcrafts from stalls to passers-by, while 1950s Chevrolets full of dents and held together by makeshift repairs cruised by, crammed with passengers.

Castro’s remains were cremated, and his ashes will be taken around Cuba until a state funeral on December 4. Western diplomatic officials said foreign dignitaries will arrive by Tuesday for a memorial service to be held in Revolution Square that evening.

Cuban state television, student associations and the women’s federation had organised smaller rallies to mourn Fidel Castro and pledge their support to the revolution.

Sorrow, slights greet news of Castro’s death 

While the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro prompted cheers from the country’s exiles in Miami, the 90-year-old revolutionary leader’s passing produced expressions of respect in other parts of the world and measured responses from governments that saw the devoted socialist as a threat.

US President Barack Obama noted that while “discord and profound political disagreements” marked the relationship between the US and Cuba for nearly six decades, Americans were extending “a hand of friendship to the Cuban people” during their time of grief.

While spending the Thanksgiving weekend in Florida, where the announcement of Castro's death early yesterday brought Cuban exiles into the streets to celebrate, US President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to share a thought that proved pithy even for the medium: “Fidel Castro is dead!” — Reuters