Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator who helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear war, tormented 11 American presidents and exerted almost total control over the last remaining communist government in the Western Hemisphere, has died. He was 90.
President Raúl Castro delivered a statement on Cuban television to confirm his brother's death:
“With profound pain I appear to inform our people and the friends of the Americas and of the world, that today, November 25, at 10:29 pm, the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz died. In compliance with the expressed will of the Companion Fidel, his remains will be cremated. In the early hours of Saturday the 26th, the funeral organizing committee will provide our people with detailed information on the organization of the posthumous tribute that will be done for the founder of the Cuban Revolution. Ever onward to victory!”
The Cuban government will observe nine days of mourning for Fidel Castro. After two days of observances in Revolution Plaza in Havana, Castro’s ashes will be transported across the country to the eastern city of Santiago. The final Mass and ceremony will take place Dec. 4, and his ashes will be interred in the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia.
For 47 years, Castro maintained his grip over the island nation by forging close bonds with the Soviet Union, Venezuela and China, inspiring a wave of anti-American leaders throughout Latin America along the way.
His undoing began with surgery in 2006 that forced him to cede power to his brother, Raúl Castro, and forever changed the image of the man. Gone was the romantic vision of the bearded, cigar-smoking guerrilla leading his group of rebels through the mountains of Cuba, replaced by occasional pictures and videos of a frail, old man recovering in bath robes and track suits.
The prolonged physical collapse gave hope to Washington and to more than a million Cuban-Americans who have fled his regime over the decades that a political change would soon follow. But his illness proved to be a blessing to those closest to him, easing the transition to a new leader and ensuring that they remained in power.
And true to his character, it did little to change his view of his own place in history.
“His personality was such that he always saw himself as the man on the horse, the only guy who could possibly do what he has done,” said Dennis Hays, a former chief Cuba analyst at the State Department. “In his mind, he was the only one who could hold back the tides of time and human nature as he has.”
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