Fidel Castro laid to rest in cemetery in Santiago de Cuba

Record ID: 75533

  • Title: Fidel Castro laid to rest in cemetery in Santiago de Cuba
  • Date: 4th December 2016
  • Summary: SANTIAGO DE CUBA, CUBA (DECEMBER 4, 2016) (REUTERS) BOULDER WITH PLAQUE READING "FIDEL" HONOUR GUARD SOLDIERS AT FIDEL CASTRO'S TOMB SOLDIERS AT THE CEMETERY CUBAN FLAG AT HALF-STAFF MORE OF TOMB SOLDIERS MORE OF TOMB WITH BOULDER WITH "FIDEL" PLAQUE CLOSE-UP OF SIGN FOR THE SANTA IFIGENIA CEMETERY GUARDED ENTRANCE TO THE CEMETERY
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2016 17:20
  • Keywords: Cuba Fidel Castro cemetery ashes
  • Location: SANTIAGO DE CUBA, CUBA
  • City: SANTIAGO DE CUBA, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015BGXGZR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Fidel Castro's ashes were laid to rest on Sunday (December 4), capping nine days of official mourning when hundreds of thousands of Cubans said farewell with a combination of tears, Castro-like defiance and choruses of "I am Fidel!"
    A private ceremony was held at Santiago's Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, state media reported.
    Castro's cremated remains were placed in a large, round stone placed close to, but dwarfed by the mausoleum of independence hero Jose Marti, another towering figure of Cuban history who Castro long admired.
    It is a few steps from a monument to rebels who died fighting in Castro's failed 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago, the start of the revolution.
    Castro, who had been out of power for a decade but never far from the centre of public life, died on November 25 at age 90.
    In his final years he wrote a periodic column on world and local matters and received foreign dignitaries at his home on the outskirts of Havana.
    Castro gave Cuba an outsized influence in world affairs. He was feted by Nelson Mandela for helping to end apartheid at a time the West supported the racist system, but helped take the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis.
    Forced to step down due to an intestinal ailment, Castro ceded power to his younger brother Raul, the current president, at first provisionally in 2006, then definitively in 2008.
    Cuba has not revealed the cause of his death.
    In keeping with his wishes, Castro's image will not be immortalized with statues and public places will not be named after him, his brother said on Saturday (December 3).
    Initially the ceremony at the cemetery was due to be carried live on television, but hours before official media announced it would be "solemn and private."
    The Cuban government later released still photos of Raul Castro placing his brother's ashes at the stone tomb.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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