Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Image Source: Escambray)
Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died on Friday at the age of 90.
Castro led his country from 1958 until 2008, making him one of the world’s longest serving national heads of state of the last 150 years. He was forced to step down from power in 2006 after health issues, ceding his presidential duties to his bother Raúl Castro as Cuba’s head of state until at least 2018.
Last night 21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen spoke with RT International about what Castro’s passing will mean to US politics, and how his legacy might influence future generations of Cubans, as well as the rest of Latin America. Watch:
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Castro tormented 11 American presidents and presided over the last remaining communist government in the Western Hemisphere.
Latin America’s relationship with the U.S. government has been a tumultuous one, with Cuba symbolizing the vanguard of imperialist resistance to the neocolonial and economic hegemony that has been in place every since the Monroe Doctrine was implemented by Washignton DC in the 1800’s.
Raúl Castro issued the following statement to Cuban state TV early this morning:
“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!”
In the Spring of 2016, President Obama made the first official state visit to the island by a US President in decades, but did not meet face-to-face with Fidel Castro, meeting his brother Raul instead. Since then, a gradual process of normalization of relations between the two countries has already been set in motion – with an uncertain future for Cuba, at least in the short to near term.
Expect Castro’s legacy to endure for decades to come, if not as a political force, certainly as an iconic cultural symbol in the same vein as his revolutionary compatriot Che Guevara.
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READ MORE CUBA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Cuba Files
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