Fidel Castro Dead At 90

"Cuba's Fidel Castro, former president, dies aged 90

• 17 minutes ago
  
• From the sectionLatin America & Caribbean

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Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGES
Image captionFidel Castro led the Communist revolution in Cuba in 1959
Fidel Castro, Cuba's former president and leader of the Communist revolution, has died aged 90, his brother has said.

"The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday)," President Raul Castro said.

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost 50 years before Raul took over in 2008.

His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. But he was also accused of suppressing opposition.

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Ashen and grave, President Castro told the nation in an unexpected late night broadcast on state television that Fidel Castro had died and would be cremated on Saturday.

There would now be several days of national mourning on the island.

Raul Castro ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: "Towards victory, always!"

Barring the occasional newspaper column, Fidel Castro had essentially been retired from political life for some time, the BBC's Will Grant in Havana reports.

In April, Fidel Castro gave a rare speech on the final day of the country's Communist Party congress.

He acknowledged his advanced age but said Cuban communist concepts were still valid and the Cuban people "will be victorious".

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Media captionIn April, Castro made a rare appearance at Cuba's Communist Party congress
"I'll soon be 90," the former president said, adding that this was "something I'd never imagined".

"Soon I'll be like all the others, "to all our turn must come," Fidel Castro said.

Castro - who had survived many assassination plots - was the longest serving non-royal leader of the 20th Century.

Castro temporarily handed over power to his brother in 2006 as he was recovering from an acute intestinal ailment.

Raul Castro officially became president two years later.

Fidel Castro's key dates
Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGES

• 1926: Born in the south-eastern Oriente Province of Cuba

• 1953: Imprisoned after leading an unsuccessful rising against Batista's regime

• 1955: Released from prison under an amnesty deal

• 1956: With Che Guevara, begins a guerrilla war against the government

• 1959: Defeats Batista, sworn in as prime minister of Cuba

• 1961: Fights off CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles

• 1962: Sparks Cuban missile crisis by agreeing that USSR can deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba

• 1976: Elected president by Cuba's National Assembly

• 1992: Reaches an agreement with US over Cuban refugees

• 2008: Stands down as president of Cuba due to health issues

Cuba's revolutionary leader

Throughout the Cold War, Fidel Castro was Washington's bete noire.

An accomplished tactician on the battlefield, he and his small army of guerrillas overthrew the military leader Fulgencio Batista in 1959 to widespread popular support.

Within two years of taking power, he declared the revolution to be Marxist-Leninist in nature and allied the island nation firmly to the Soviet Union.

Yet, despite the constant threat of a US invasion as well as the long-standing economic embargo on the island, Castro managed to maintain a communist revolution in a nation just 90 miles (145km) off the coast of Florida.

Despised by his critics as much as he was revered by his followers, he outlasted ten US presidents and defied scores of attempts on his life by the CIA."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38114953

 

Seriously?

If not tongue in cheek, then easily the most ridiculous comparison of the day.

 

I thought it was tongue in cheek

 

Fought capitalism his entire life.

Died on Black Friday.

 

I don't say this often about someone who died...

but good riddance.

 

It's weird. In the last decade we have seen the deaths of Kim Jing Il, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Gaddafi, Osama Bin Laden...horrible, horrible people the world has wanted dead for decades. But even with all their deaths, the stability of the world has gotten arguably worse.

 

The devil you know...