Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro dies at 90

Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and for five decades defied U.S. efforts to topple him, died on Friday. He was 90.

A towering figure of the 20th century and Cold War icon, Castro stuck to his ideology beyond the collapse of Soviet communism. His death prompted a mix of tributes and condemnation from allies and foes around the world.

Castro had been in poor health since an intestinal ailment nearly killed him in 2006. He formally ceded power to his younger brother, Raul, two years later.

Wearing a green military uniform, a somber Raul, 85, appeared on state television on Friday night to announce Castro's death, 60 years to the day since the two brothers and dozens of supporters left Mexico on a boat to take revolution to Cuba.

"At 10:29 at night, the chief commander of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died," he said, without giving a cause of death.

"Ever onward, to victory," he said, using the slogan of the Cuban revolution.

"History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him," U.S. President Barack Obama said, extending "a hand of friendship" to Cuba.

Obama's elected successor, Donald Trump, issued a blunt statement calling Castro "a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades."

"Fidel Castro's legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights," Trump said.

Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, urged revolutionaries to follow Castro's legacy, while Chinese President Xi Jinping said, "The Chinese people have lost a close comrade and a sincere friend."

Raul Castro, who glorified his older brother, has nonetheless changed Cuba by introducing market-style economic reforms and agreeing with the United States in December 2014 to re-establish diplomatic ties and end decades of hostility.

It is unclear whether Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, will continue efforts to normalize relations with Cuba or fulfill a campaign promise to close the U.S. embassy in Havana once again.

Castro himself offered only lukewarm support for the 2014 deal with Washington, raising questions about whether he approved of ending hostilities with his longtime enemy, a conflict that took the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

He did not meet Obama when he visited Havana earlier this year, the first time an American president had stepped foot on Cuban soil since 1928.

Days later, Castro wrote a scathing newspaper column condemning Obama's "honey-coated" words and reminding Cubans of the U.S. efforts to overthrow the communist government.

Cuba has declared nine days of mourning, during which time Castro's ashes will be taken to different parts of the country. A burial ceremony will be held on Dec. 4.

There will be no top level games of baseball -- Castro's passion after politics -- for the nine-day mourning period, the sport's national federation declared.

Hundreds of students gathered in Havana on Saturday to honor Castro, and mass rallies are planned for the coming days.

"When I found out Fidel had died, I felt such pain. I cried," said Badanys Rodriguez, 39, proudly showing off a tattoo on his shoulder of late Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, one of Castro's closest comrades in the revolution.

However, in Miami, where many exiles from Castro's government live, a large crowd waving Cuban flags cheered, danced and banged on pots and pans to celebrate the passing of a man they loathed.

Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.

He was demonized by the United States and its allies for his repression of dissent at home and support of rebellion abroad, but admired by many leftists around the world, especially in Latin America and Africa.

Nelson Mandela, once freed from prison in 1990, repeatedly thanked Castro for his efforts in helping to weaken apartheid.

In April, in a rare public appearance at the Communist Party conference, Castro shocked party apparatchiks by referring to his own imminent mortality.

"Soon I will be like all the rest. Our turn comes to all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain," he said.

Castro crossed swords with 10 U.S. presidents while in power, and outlasted nine of them.

He fended off a U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and claimed he survived or evaded hundreds of assassination attempts, including some conjured up by the CIA.

Wearing green military fatigues and chomping on cigars for many of his years in power, Castro was famous for long, fist-pounding speeches filled with blistering rhetoric, often aimed at the United States.

At home, he swept away capitalism and won support for bringing schools and hospitals to the poor. But he also created legions of enemies and critics, concentrated among the exiles in Miami who saw him as a ruthless tyrant.

"With Castro's passing, some of the heat may go out of the antagonism between Cuba and the United States, and between Cuba and Miami, which would be good for everyone," said William M. LeoGrande, co-author of a book on U.S.-Cuba relations.

Castro's death -- which would once have thrown a major question mark over Cuba's future -- seems unlikely to trigger a crisis as Raul Castro is firmly ensconced in power.

Castro no longer held leadership posts in his final years. He wrote newspaper commentaries on world affairs and occasionally met foreign leaders, but lived in semi-seclusion.

Still, the death of the man known to most Cubans as "El Comandante" -- the commander -- or simply "Fidel" leaves a void in the country he dominated for so long. It also underlines the generational change in Cuba's communist leadership.

Raul Castro has vowed to step down when his term ends in 2018, and the Communist Party has elevated younger leaders to its Politburo, including 56-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is first vice president and the heir apparent.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו