Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader of revolution, dies at 90

[Batu69]

Fidel Castro led the Communist revolution in Cuba in 1959

Fidel Castro, Cuba's former president and leader of the Communist revolution, has died aged 90, his brother has said.

"The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday)," President Raul Castro said.

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost 50 years before Raul took over in 2008.

His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. But he was also accused of suppressing opposition.

 

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Ashen and grave, President Castro told the nation in an unexpected late night broadcast on state television that Fidel Castro had died and would be cremated on Saturday.

 

There would now be several days of national mourning on the island.

Raul Castro ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: "Towards victory, always!"

 

Barring the occasional newspaper column, Fidel Castro had essentially been retired from political life for some time, the BBC's Will Grant in Havana reports.

In April, Fidel Castro gave a rare speech on the final day of the country's Communist Party congress.

 

He acknowledged his advanced age but said Cuban communist concepts were still valid and the Cuban people "will be victorious".

 

"I'll soon be 90," the former president said, adding that this was "something I'd never imagined".

"Soon I'll be like all the others, "to all our turn must come," Fidel Castro said.

 

Castro - who had survived many assassination plots - was the longest serving non-royal leader of the 20th Century.

Castro temporarily handed over power to his brother in 2006 as he was recovering from an acute intestinal ailment.

Raul Castro officially became president two years later.

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Fidel Castro's key dates

 

• 1926: Born in the south-eastern Oriente Province of Cuba

• 1953: Imprisoned after leading an unsuccessful rising against Batista's regime

• 1955: Released from prison under an amnesty deal

• 1956: With Che Guevara, begins a guerrilla war against the government

• 1959: Defeats Batista, sworn in as prime minister of Cuba

• 1961: Fights off CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles

• 1962: Sparks Cuban missile crisis by agreeing that USSR can deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba

• 1976: Elected president by Cuba's National Assembly

• 1992: Reaches an agreement with US over Cuban refugees

• 2008: Stands down as president of Cuba due to health issues

Cuba's revolutionary leader

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Throughout the Cold War, Fidel Castro was Washington's bete noire.

An accomplished tactician on the battlefield, he and his small army of guerrillas overthrew the military leader Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to widespread popular support.

 

Within two years of taking power, he declared the revolution to be Marxist-Leninist in nature and allied the island nation firmly to the Soviet Union.

Yet, despite the constant threat of a US invasion as well as the long-standing economic embargo on the island, Castro managed to maintain a communist revolution in a nation just 90 miles (145km) off the coast of Florida.

 

Despised by his critics as much as he was revered by his followers, he outlasted ten US presidents and defied scores of attempts on his life by the CIA.

 

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[Jogs]

No one was able to kill him. Many people said bad things about him but he was one of the greatest leader of this era. Unlike his criticizers, he was the person who nearly gave his life for his country. Only if all our modern day leaders could be like him our world would have been a better place to live in. 
 

[Salafi]

Respectable leader! R.I.P

[pc71520]

Meanwhile, Cuban residents take to the Miami streets

to celebrate news of Fidel Castro's death.

 

[Sylence]

Rest In Peace. had almost a long life after all the things he had been through

[el_espaniol]

                        Hasta la Victoria Final

                             Comandante...!!!!

 

 

                           RIP 1926 --- 2016

               

 

       

 

[KamenRiderBlack]

Yeah, Good riddance to the tyrant and murderer of his people.

[CODYQX4]

.

[luisam]

Nothing to "celebrate", nothing to mourn. The Dictator died - long live the Dictator. Cuba is the poorest country of Latin America after Haití. Castro converted Cuba to a monarchy so when he resigned for his bad health, his brother (now 84) continued. Probably by now some other respected family member is being "prepared" as next the king of Cuba (probably not Raul's gay daughter).

Cuba is a brutal dictatorship where the only human right is to breathe - with some limitations. You go, live and work where the governement tells you, eat, buy, sell, study, read and even play what the govenment lets you and if you protest, you might be prosecuted as a common criminal and you are jailed with common criminals - never for political reasons!

Government may decide Chistmas in in June so you'll have to celebrate Christmas in June!

In Cuba you can't even sell the mangos which grow in your own courtyard: are not "yours"! You need to have an official permission to do.

In Cuba it's a crime to have a computer without the permission of the government, only selected may have Internet and govenrment blocks any site not of their preference.

Or course, you are welcome to Cuba with your dollars or euros to any of those luxurious resorts made and operated by European Tourist Industry and you'll have some good time with well educated "jineteras", many of them with University educations earning about the same as the cleaning service of your hotel... but be careful with AIDS!

Final advice, if you decide to visit Cuba don't be too "personal" interacting with natives: you may be deported rather fast back to your country of origin, with no refund of your resort reservation

Hasta la victoria final!