Fidel Castro honored by thousands in Havana; Obama absent as world leaders join in

Havana, Nov 30: Cuba's leftist allies and Washington's top diplomat in Havana joined a sprawling throng of Cubans at a rally on Tuesday to commemorate Fidel Castro, the man who built a Communist state on the doorstep of the United States. Castro died on Friday at age 90, a decade after ceding control to his younger brother Raul Castro, 85.

With Raul Castro at his side, the charismatic Fidel Castro led the bearded rebels who seized power in a 1959 revolution and ruled the island in the face of US opposition that endured until President Barack Obama reversed course in 2014 and set out to restore diplomatic relations.

For many, especially in Latin America and Africa, Castro was a symbol of resistance to imperialism, having ousted a U.S.-backed dictator, and a champion of the poor. Others, including many in the large Cuban exile community in Miami, have condemned him as a tyrant who jailed opponents and ruined the economy through socialism.

Chants of “Viva Fidel!” resounded as tens of thousands massed in Havana's Revolution Square on Tuesday evening to pay homage to Castro. “United, the people will never be defeated!” rang another.

Raul Castro embraced ideological ally, visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as the ceremony got underway.

“To weigh the success or failure of Cuba's economic model without factoring in the more than 50-year-long criminal (U.S.) embargo, is pure hypocrisy,” Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said in a tribute to Fidel Castro.

The White House announced on Tuesday Obama would not send a presidential delegation. Instead, the United States will be represented by Jeffrey DeLaurentis, chief diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Havana, and Ben Rhodes, an Obama aide who represented the United States in 18 months of secret talks that led to detente.

That rapprochement is now threatened by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20 and who has spoken of resuming Washington's hard line unless the government makes political changes, the kind of pressure the Castro brothers always fiercely resisted.

DeLaurentis was head of the U.S. interests section in Havana when it was upgraded to an embassy in July 2015 and has been nominated by Obama to be named ambassador. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called Rhodes “the principal interlocutor with the Cuban government from the White House” on normalization.

Many leaders of Latin America's left, including Maduro and Bolivian President Evo Morales, flew in to attend the ceremony in the same space where Castro once delivered rousing, marathon speeches.

African leaders included Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and South African President Jacob Zuma, who paid Castro a tribute of his own. The late Nelson Mandelarepeatedly thanked Castro for his efforts in helping overturn apartheid in South Africa.

Mugabe, 92, himself a former Marxist guerrilla who has led Zimbabwe as prime minister or president since 1980 despite financial and health crises, praised Fidel Castro's government for having trained thousands of Zimbabwean doctors and teachers.

“Fidel was not just your leader. He was our leader and the leader of all revolutionaries. We followed him, listened to him and tried to emulate him,” Mugabe told reporters as he arrived in Havana,

“Farewell, dear brother. Farewell, revolutionary,” he said.

Few leaders from the world's major powers are heading to the Caribbean island, with many sending second-tier officials instead.

China has sent Vice President Li Yuanchao, while Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Cuban embassy in Beijing to pay his condolences, China's foreign ministry said

Russian President Vladimir Putin has skipped the ceremony but described Castro as a “true friend of Russia.” The Kremlin said he held a different view on his legacy to that of Trump, who has called the Cuban leader “a brutal dictator.”

The Cuban government, still essentially dedicated to Fidel Castro's political vision despite some economic reforms under Raul Castro, has declared nine days of mourning. That has included a two-day commemoration in Havana, where tens of thousands of Cubans have waited in long lines to pay their respects in Revolution Square.

Some in tears or wrapped in the Cuban flag, mourners have filed past Castro's favorite portrait of himself, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a rifle. Many state employees and school children came together in groups.

A caravan carrying Castro's ashes will depart Havana on Wednesday en route to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, his final resting place, in a reversal of the journey he took with the rebel army that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959.