Raul Castro offers sendoff for brother at Santiago rally, promises to defend legacy

Record ID: 75729

  • Title: Raul Castro offers sendoff for brother at Santiago rally, promises to defend legacy
  • Date: 4th December 2016
  • Summary: SANTIAGO, CUBA (DECEMBER 3, 2016) (REUTERS) CROWD IN ANTONIO MACEO REVOLUTION PLAZA OFFICIALS TAKING STAGE CHILD WITH PHOTOS OF FIDEL CASTRO HANGING AROUND HIS NECK BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT, EVO MORALES, GREETING ATTENDEES CUBAN PRESIDENT, RAUL CASTRO, APPROACHING LECTERN POSTER PHOTOS OF FIDEL CASTRO AMID CROWD WOMAN CRYING
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2016 03:07
  • Keywords: Fidel Castro Raul Castro Santiago Revolution Plaza Jose Marti
  • Location: SANTIAGO, CUBA
  • City: SANTIAGO, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015BGV1AF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: President Raul Castro led tens of thousands of Cubans on Saturday (December 3) in a pledge to defend the socialist legacy of his brother Fidel Castro, who died last week aged 90 and will be interred in the city where they launched the Cuban Revolution.
    But Fidel Castro's image will not be immortalized with statues nor will public places be named after him, Raul Castro said, in keeping with older brother's wishes.
    "Faithful to the ethic of Marti that 'all the glory of the world fits in a kernel of corn,' the leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of a personality, and was consistent with that view to his last hours of life, insisting that when he dies, his name and image would never be utilized to designate institutions, plazas, parks, avenues, streets and other sites," Raul Castro said, referring to Cuban national hero and independence lion, Jose Marti.
    Dressed in his four-star general's uniform, Raul told a crowd that would burst into chants of "I am Fidel," that he would continue building on the political project.
    "As corresponding to the will of our comrade Fidel, we will present in the next period in the National Assembly of People's Power the legislative proposals so that his will prevails," Raul Castro.
    He appealed to his brother's record of defiance.
    "He demonstrated yes, it was possible. It was possible to overcome any obstacle, threat to, or challenge to our firm undertaking of building a socialism in Cuba, or likewise, guaranteeing the independence and sovereignty of the fatherland," Raul Castro said.
    In a speech before Santiago's packed central plaza, the 85-year-old led the crowd to repeat the historic words of Cuban independence General Antonio Maceo.
    "In the Major General Antonio Maceo Grajales Revolution Plaza, in the heroic city of Santiago de Cuba, we swear to defend the fatherland and socialism and together we will reaffirm all the bronze titan's sentence, 'Whoever intends to take control of Cuba, will pick up the dust from the ground sodden with his blood if he doesn't die in the fight!" Fidel! Fidel! Ever onward to victory!"
    Raul Castro was joined on the stage by leftist foreign dignitaries and the Cuban political leadership to bid farewell to the man known to most Cubans as "El Comandante" - the commander - or simply "Fidel."
    His ashes will be entombed near the remains of Marti in a cemetery in the eastern city.
    Castro began his revolution on July 26, 1953, with a failed assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago. He went on to survive a half century of U.S. attempts to topple or kill him.
    Drawn in a trailer behind an olive green army jeep, Castro's ashes have made a 600-mile (1,000-km) journey in which hundreds of thousands of Cubans have lined up on roadsides and gathered in plazas for a final tribute.
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