Fidel Castro, Cuba's communist revolutionary, dead aged 90 - latest news, world's reaction, and what his death means for the county

Donald Trump condemned Fidel Castro as a "brutal dictator" who murdered and oppressed his own people yesterday, in an apparent bid to undo President Obama's thawing of relations with Cuba. 

The president-elect's statement on the revolutionary's death was a marked contrast from the reaction  of Barack Obama, who has overseen a historic renewal of diplomatic ties with the Communist state. 

"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," Mr Trump said in a statement.

He added that the the "deaths and pains caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased," vowing to help the Cuban people "begin their journey towards liberty and prosperity."

Mr Trump has previously threatened to  reverse Mr Obama's trade deal with Cuba unless it meets his demands to release some political prisoners and restore civil liberties.

Mr Obama's own statement on the death of Castro, at the age of 90, struck a markedly different tone, describing the Latin American dictator as a "singular figure" whose socialist policies had "an enormous impact on the world around him."

The Democratic president was widely praised for his efforts to heal divisions between the two countries after he became the first US president in eighty years to visit Cuba last March.

"We offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family," added his statement, which also said he "extended a hand of friendship to the Cuban people."

Across the rest of the world, Castro was showered with effusive praise by left-wing governments in France, Canada and neighbouring Venezuela who praised his revolutionary spirit. Francois Hollande, France's deeply unpopular socialist president, hailed Castro as a "towering figure in the 20th century" and called for the US trade embargo on Cuba to be lifted.

"[Castro] incarnated the Cuban revolution, in both its hopes and subsequent disillusionment," Mr Hollande said. Justin Trudeau, the liberal prime minister of Canada, described Castro as a "family friend" before praising his "significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation."

In contrast to the United States, Canada has enjoyed cordial relations with Cuba which are expected to continue despite Mr Trump's highly critical stance on its Communist government.

Last November Mr Trudeau met with President Raul Castro, Fidel's brother, in a move that echoed his own father, Pierre Trudeau, visiting the country as its prime minister in 1976 - the first Nato leader to do so. 

China's president Xi Jingping also had kind words for Castro in a statement read out on state television: "The Chinese people have lost a good and true comrade. Comrade Castro will live forever.”

Vladimir Putin described Castro as "a sincere and reliable friend of Russia," while Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, praised him for standing up to US pressure.

"Fidel stood up and strengthened his country during the harshest American blockade, when there was colossal pressure on him,” Mr Gorbachev said.

“And he still took his country out of this blockade to a path of independent development. "In the past years, even when Fidel Castro was not formally in power, his role in strengthening the country was huge."

Russia, which has retained its relations with Cuba since the fall of Soviet Union 1991, had perceived Castro as the world leader of third-world socialism throughout the Cold War. 

Jacob Zuma, the South African president, praised Castro for inspiring Nelson Mandela and others fighting for freedom in the African nation.

"President Castro identified with our struggle against apartheid,” he said. “He inspired the Cuban people to join us in our own struggle. As a way of paying homage to the memory of President Castro, the strong bonds of solidarity, cooperation and friendship that exist between South Africa and Cuba must be maintained and nurtured.”

However, it was across Latin America that the 90-year-old's death was greeted with the most sadness. The Leftist alliance which lionised Castro may have weakened in the past – with the left wing leaders of Argentina, Brazil and Peru no longer in power – but he could always count on the unfailing loyalty of Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

“A great one has gone. Fidel has died. Viva Cuba! Viva Latin America!” tweeted Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, yesterday.  In Bolivia, where Ernesto "Che" Guevara died in 1967 in a failed bid to export Cuba's revolution, President Evo Morales said in a statement: "Fidel Castro left us a legacy of having fought for the integration of the world's peoples.

“The departure of Comandante Fidel Castro really hurts."  But it is Venezuela - teetering towards becoming a failed state - which perhaps most illustrates the end of the leftist dream. Nicolas Maduro, like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, idolised Castro. Like Castro, he has been unable to hold back the forces of globalisation - but unlike Castro, he will continue to fight.

"It is up to us to continue his legacy and carry his flag of independence," he said. "Fidel and Chavez built the Boliviarian Alliance, Petrocaribe and took our people down the path of liberation. History will absolve them." 

A revolutionary life

He was demonised by the United States and its allies but admired by many leftists around the world, especially socialist revolutionaries in Latin America and Africa.

Transforming Cuba from a playground for rich Americans into a symbol of resistance to Washington, Castro outlasted nine U.S. presidents in power.

He fended off a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 as well as countless assassination attempts.

His alliance with Moscow helped trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13-day showdown with the United States that brought the world the closest it has been to nuclear war.

Wearing green military fatigues and chomping on cigars for many of his years in power, Castro was famous for long, fist-pounding speeches filled with blistering rhetoric, often aimed at the United States.

At home, he swept away capitalism and won support for bringing schools and hospitals to the poor. But he also created legions of enemies and critics, concentrated among Cuban exiles in Miami who fled his rule and saw him as a ruthless tyrant.

In the end it was not the efforts of Washington and Cuban exiles nor the collapse of Soviet communism that ended his rule. Instead, illness forced him to cede power to his younger brother Raul Castro, provisionally in 2006 and definitively in 2008.

Political reaction

Latin American leaders led the tributes to Castro.

Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, hailed his legacy. “To all the revolutionaries of the world, we have to continue his legacy and his flag of independence, of socialism, of homeland,” he said. 

Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, said he was "a great one". "Fidel is dead. Long live Cuba! Long live Latin America!”

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted: "I lament the death of Fidel Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban revolution and emblematic reference of the 20th Century," he said on Twitter.

Elsewhere, French President François Hollande said Castro “incarnated the Cuban revolution” in its “hopes” and its “disillusionments”.

“Fidel Castro was a figure of the 20th century. He incarnated the Cuban revolution, in the hopes that it aroused, then in the disillusionments it provoked," he said in a statement.

"An actor in the Cold War, he was part of an era that ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. He succeeded in representing for Cubans the pride of rejecting external domination.”

He added that the controversial embargo which "punishes" Cuba should be lifted once and for all."

"On the occasion of Fidel Castro's death I want again to say that the embargo which punishes Cuba should be lifted definitively," he said at a summit of French-speaking nations in Madagascar.

Fidel Castro's death comes as relations have thawed between Cuba and the US, to which he responded:

"We don't need the empire to give us anything."

Castro led a coup in 1959 to overthrow the regime of the US-backed former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, and remained hostile to Washington throughout his life.

The leader of the French Communist Party, Pierre Laurent, who told French TV that the dictator had “liberated his people in 1959, at a time when the island was in some ways the brothel and the casino of rich Americans. Then he faced American imperialism… He was one of the leaders of the movement of human emancipation in the 20th century. The revolution he led took place at the time of decolonisation and was part of this movement to restore the sovereignty of peoples. That is what will remain in history.”

UK reaction

In Britain, former London mayor Ken Livingstone said Mr Castro was an "absolute giant of the 20th century", and blamed the US for the restrictions on civil liberties under his leadership. 

He said: "I'm sure they will, over time, move towards something like a traditional west European democracy. It could have happened a lot earlier if you hadn't had, the entire time, a blockade by America, attempts to overthrow the regime, eight assassination attempts authorised by American presidents."

Mr Livingstone said Cuba could reform now it was not under threat of American invasion "even if Trump goes a little bit bonkers".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "of course Fidel did things that were wrong", adding: "Initially he wasn't very good on lesbian and gay rights, but the key things that mattered was that people had a good education, good healthcare and wealth was evenly distributed.

"He was not living as a billionaire laundering money off into a Panamanian bank account or anything like that, he was good for the people."

Prince Harry joined dignitaries from St Vincent and the Grenadines in observing a minute's silence for former Cuban leader Fidel Castro who has died aged 90.

The prince  attended a reception in St Vincent's capital hosted by the Caribbean country's governor general Sir Frederick Ballantyne who asked his guests to mark the death of the international figure.

Among the guests was Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, leader of the country's ruling Unity Labour Party, who described Castro as a good friend of his country.

 

 

Donald Trump: "He's dead!"

The president-elect of the United States issued a typically statesmanlike and reserved tweet in reaction to the news of Castro's death. 

In a statement The president-elect added: "Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” Trump said. “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

“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."

Mike Pence, the vice-president elect said America would stand with the oppressed Cuba people. 

How Havana has reacted

In the capital, the death caught many people by surprise in the early hours of the morning. In Old Havana, people gathered around their radios, listening to state-run stations play revolutionary anthems and recite facts about Castro's life.

Carlos Rodriguez, 15, was sitting in Havana's Miramar neighbourhood when he heard that Fidel Castro had died.

"Fidel? Fidel?" he said as he slapped his head with his hand in shock. "That's not what I was expecting. One always thought that he would last forever. It doesn't seem true."

"It's a tragedy," said Dayan Montalvo, a 22-year-old nurse. "We all grew up with him. I feel really hurt by the news that we just heard."

Havana student Sariel Valdespino said he was "very upset". "Whatever you want to say, he is public figure that the whole world respected and loved."

Mariela Alonso, a 45-year-old doctor, called the retired Cuban leader "the guide for our people."

"There will be no one else like him. We will feel his physical absence," she said.

Cuban state television was carrying special programming celebrating the life of Castro. The programming included footage from years past of Castro giving speeches on revolutionary struggle.

Expat community

In the US, however, expat Cubans took to the streets of Miami's Little Havana to celebrate news of the death.

Thousands of people waved Cuban flags in the air and whooped in jubilation on Calle Ocho - 8th Street, and the heart of the neighbourhood. Honking and strains of salsa music from car stereos echoed against stucco buildings, and fireworks lit up the humid night sky.

Police blocked off streets leading to Cafe Versailles, the quintessential Cuban American hotspot where strong cafecitos - sweetened espresso - were as common as a harsh word about Fidel Castro.

"Cuba si! Castro no!" they chanted, while others screamed "Cuba libre!"

At the Bay of Pigs memorial, Antonio Hernandez, 76, rode his bicycle up in a light rain and stood at the eternal flame that honors the men who tried, and failed, to wrest Cuba from Castro's grip in 1961.

"Everybody's happy. Now this guy won't do any more damage," said Hernandez, who came to Miami on the Mariel boat lift in 1980. "His brother will now go down, too. But the world has to pay attention to this, not just we Cubans."

Not everyone celebrated though.

"I don't celebrate. Nobody does. You can't celebrate somebody's death. I just hope for democracy," said Arnold Vidallet, a 48-year-old financial adviser who was woken by relatives with the news and who went to Domino Park, in the heart of Little Havana, to witness history unfolding.

How the internet is remembering Castro

What next?

Although Raul Castro always glorified his older brother, he has changed Cuba since taking over by introducing market-style economic reforms and agreeing with the United States in December to re-establish diplomatic ties and end decades of hostility.

Six weeks later, Fidel Castro offered only lukewarm support for the deal, raising questions about whether he approved of ending hostilities with his longtime enemy.

In his final years, Fidel Castro no longer held leadership posts. He wrote newspaper commentaries on world affairs and occasionally met with foreign leaders but he lived in semi-seclusion.

His death - which would once have thrown a question mark over Cuba's future - seems unlikely to trigger a crisis as Raul, 85, is firmly ensconced in power.

Still, the passing of the man known to most Cubans as "El Comandante" - the commander - or simply "Fidel" leaves a huge void in the country he dominated for so long. It also underlines the generational change in Cuba's communist leadership.

Raul Castro vows to step down when his term ends in 2018 and the Communist Party has elevated younger leaders to its Politburo, including 56-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is first vice-president and the heir apparent.

Others in their 50s include Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and economic reform czar Marino Murillo.

The reforms have led to more private enterprise and the lifting of some restrictions on personal freedoms but they aim to strengthen Communist Party rule, not weaken it.

"I don't think Fidel's passing is the big test. The big test is handing the revolution over to the next generation and that will happen when Raul steps down," Cuba expert Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute in Virginia said before Castro's death.

Nine days of mourning have been declared following Castro's death, with a funeral set for December 4.

 

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