Posted on 11/26/2016 2:19:36 PM PST by heterosupremacist
HAVANA (AP) -- Music fell silent, weddings were canceled and people wept in the streets Saturday as Cubans faced their first day without the leader who steered their island to both greater social equality and years of economic ruin.
Across a hushed capital, dozens of Cubans said they felt genuine pain at the death of Fidel Castro, whose words and image had filled schoolbooks, airwaves and front pages since before many were born.
Both brothers led bands of bearded rebels out of the eastern Sierra Maestra mountains to create a communist government 90 miles from the United States. But since taking over from his ailing brother in 2006, the 85-year-old Raul Castro has allowed an explosion of private enterprise and, last year, restored diplomatic relations with Washington.
On Saturday, many Cubans on the island described Fidel Castro as a towering figure who brought Cuba free health care, education and true independence from the United States, while saddling the country with an ossified political and economic system that has left streets and buildings crumbling and young, educated elites fleeing in search of greater prosperity abroad.
"Fidel was a father for everyone in my generation," said Jorge Luis Hernandez, a 45-year-old electrician. "I hope that we keep moving forward because we are truly a great, strong, intelligent people. There are a lot of transformations, a lot of changes, but I think that the revolution will keep on in the same way and always keep moving forward."
In 2013, Raul Castro announced that he would step aside by the time his current presidential term ends in 2018, and for the first time named an heir-apparent not from the Castro's revolutionary generation - Miguel Diaz-Canel, 56.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
For Cubans off the island, Castro's death was cause for celebration. In Miami, the heart of the Cuban diaspora, thousands of people banged pots with spoons, waved Cuban and U.S. flags in the air and whooped in jubilation.
"We're not celebrating that someone died, but that this is finished," said 30-year-old Erick Martinez, who emigrated from Cuba four years ago.
The Cuban government declared nine days of mourning for Castro, whose ashes will be carried across the island from Havana to the eastern city of Santiago in a procession retracing his rebel army's victorious sweep from the Sierra Maestra to Havana. State radio and television were filled with non-stop tributes to Castro, playing hours of footage of his time in power and interviews with prominent Cubans affectionately remembering him.
Bars shut, baseball games and concerts were suspended and many restaurants stopped serving alcohol and planned to close early. Official newspapers were published Saturday with only black ink instead of the usual bright red or blue mastheads."
For sure, ALL HOPE IS GONE.
History repeats itself. There were even those in the Gulags who cried when Stalin died.
I’m glad I read this before I ate, instead of after.
...each Cuban family get a basic ration of staples such as rice, beans, cooking oil, salt, sugar and bread. They also get the following in limited quantities: 1 piece of soap, 1 toothbrush, and 1 tube of toothpaste. Milk is only available for mothers with children below the age of six.
http://www.havana-guide.com/lifeinhavana.html
I don't get it - the keep talking about the "revolution" - against whom are they revolting???
Just putting a face on the type of person who could right such a utterly stupid article.
Is is some kind of amazing national Stockholm Syndrome for these communist countries. They are robbed, starved, murdered, and imprisioned by these people, then they cry for them.
Reading “The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn makes this very same observation. Liberals would do the same thing.
Stockholm syndrome.
Geez this guy's stupid is contagious.
They even cried in Albania when Enver Hoxha died, Five years later the Communists were overthrown in Albania.
It shows the power of propaganda.
Just wait until the clintons bite it, the streets will be awash with liberal tears.
Hey Raul, let’s have a trade - the Democratic Party in exchange of Cubans who yearns to be free...
Exactly. Powerful tools in the hands of people who use it for ill ends...Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro. We use propaganda too, but not to subjugate our population, in my opinion.
Much like North Korea, when the leader dies, everyone has to show extreme open mourning or be shot.
Seems like a nice guy, right?
Yeah...One would think they wouldn’t have any of those salty liberal tears left by then, but like crocodiles, they never run out of them!
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