Fidel Castro Dies

Havana/Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90, his brother, President Raul Castro said today in a speech on Cuban state television.

“With profound pain I appear to inform our people, the friends of our America and of the world, that today, 25 November 2016, at 10:29 PM, the commander-in-chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died,” said Raul Castro, visibly moved.

The president added that the remains of the historic leader of the Revolution would be cremated according to his “expressed will” and that in the coming hours he would offer the people “detailed information on the organization of posthumous homage to pay tribute to him.”

The last images of Fidel Castro are from 15 November, when he received at his residence the president of Vietnam, Tran Dai Quang; and the last time he was seen at a public event was August 13th, on his 90th birthday at an event at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana.

On that occasion Castro appeared fragile, dressed in a white track suit and flanked by his brother Raul and the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro.

Since his birthday he has also received at home other leaders such as the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani; that of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa; and the prime ministers of Japan, Shinzo Abe; China, Li Keqiang; and Algeria, Abdelmalek Sellal.

In April, at the XVII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, Fidel Castro also reappeared and gave a speech that sounded like a farewell in which he reaffirmed the strength of the ideas of the communists.

“To all of us our turn will come, but the ideas of Cuban communists will remain, as proof that on this planet if you work with fervor and dignity, you can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need, and we must fight relentlessly to obtain them,” Fidel Castro said on that occasion.