On the fourth day of national mourning, the Plaza de la Revolución continues full of people who want to pay posthumous homage to Fidel Castro. Today the halls were opened an hour earlier, at 8:00 am.
It has been announced that the ashes of the Cuban leader are not in the José Martí Monument but that they are resting temporarily in the Granma Hall of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, where yesterday President Raúl Castro and the members of the Political Bureau signed the oath of fidelity to the concept of Revolution.
The decision has been interpreted by some as “a lack of sensitivity toward the people. There were many ways to resolve the apparent conflict. They at least should have placed a closed TV circuit connecting the two places,” a Cuban communicator said to OnCuba.
World authorities in Cuba
According to the International Press Center, attached to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, some 30 presidents and prime ministers started arriving in Havana since late Monday night. Foreign and national media reflect the presence of high-level official delegations from some 60 countries, which have confirmed their presence in the posthumous tribute organized for this Tuesday night in Havana’s José Martí Plaza de la Revolución.
Venezuela, of course, is represented by its president, Nicolás Maduro, who on his arrival to José Martí International Airport affirmed that he is the emissary of the “wishes of solidarity and accompaniment to the Cuban people in these days of farewell to the immortal strength of Commander Fidel Castro.”
Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao is in Cuba as an envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Fidel Castro is an outstanding and brilliant leader of the Cuban people and he is also a great revolutionary and friend of the Chinese people,” he said. Other leaders attending are Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Roosevelt Skerrit, from Dominica; Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.
From Africa, Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, arrived and he told the press on his arrival to the island that “Fidel is not only your leader, but also of all the world’s revolutionaries.”
Also expected to attend are the presidents of Suriname, Desiré Delano Bouterse; of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema; of Namibia, Hage Geingob; of South Africa, Jacob Zuma; of Cape Verde, Jorge Carlos Fonseca; of Bahamas, Perry Christie; of Jamaica, Andrew Holness; of Saint Lucia, Allen Chastanet; and of Uganda, Ruhakana Rugunda.
As was expected, there will be important representations of countries of the region, with Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Salvador Sánchez (El Salvador), Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia), Enrique Peña Nieto (Mexico), Juan Carlos Varela (Panamá), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) and Juan Orlando Hernández (Honduras).
Also here are the president of the Russian Duma, Viacheslav Volodin; King Juan Carlos of Spain; the Emir father of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa; and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Ministers, foreign ministers and special envoys of India, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Syria, Portugal, Byelorussia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Germany, Costa Rica and Seychelles have confirmed their presence, as well as the deputy heads of state of Uruguay and Iran.
Other invited personalities are José Mujica, former president of Uruguay; Alicia Bárcenas, secretary general of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Frei Betto and Valter Xeu (Brazil), Atilio Borón (Argentina), Hugo Moldis (Bolivia), Javier Couso and Ignacio Ramonet (Spain), Alice Walker and Danny Glover (United States), Portia Simpson (Jamaica) and Verenice Guayasamín (Ecuador).
The presidents of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and of Haiti, Jocelerme Privet, will attend the December 4 ceremony that will take place in Santiago de Cuba, when Fidel Castro’s ashes will be deposited in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, as well as the former heads of state of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and of Argentina, former President Cristina Fernández.
Fidel’s death is being sold in Miami
In the south of Florida many continue celebrating the death of Fidel Castro. This reaction, which has given rise to a great deal of criticism in and outside of Cuba, has also had a local economic impact. Several stores are deriving benefits from the event by promoting products and services in bad taste, especially designed for the Cuban community of Miami.
Among these is Sentir Cubana, a store close to Little Havana which has increased its sales these days, especially of a party kit for the death of Fidel Castro which it has promoted for 15 years. This kit, called Cuba Libre, includes a bottle of cider, toilet paper and a t-shirt with images and phrases dedicated to Fidel.
María Vázquez, owner of the establishment, said to El Nuevo Herald that she has also sold all the Cuban flags and argued that the attitude of her purchasers is “a way in which persons are able to close this chapter.”
Restaurants like the Versalles and La Carreta also lived a greater affluence than usual. The latter, located in the neighborhood of Westchester, reported a 30 percent increase in sales, making this weekend one of the most productive of the year. The articles most sold were classical foods of Cuban cuisine: roast pork, pastelitos and sweet strong black coffee.
A great many Cubans in Miami and its outskirts spent the last days in the street. This made it possible for street vendors to also increase their profits by selling hats, bottles of water, flags and other allegoric products, while the majority of the stores and establishments closed late.
Big news certainly encourages spending, Sean Snaith, an economist with the University of Central Florida, commented regarding this, adding that consumers’ confidence is to a great extent a psychological phenomenon and events like this one make people open their pockets.
After the Council of State and of Ministers, Army General Raúl Castro, Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, the Second Secretary of the Communist Party José Ramón Machado Ventura and First Vice President Miguel Díaz Canel made the last guard of honor of the day in Havana’s José Martí Memorial.
Havana’s José Martí Plaza de la Revolución will be the scenario of a political cultural ceremony dedicated to the deceased leader of the Cuban Revolution. The presence of an extensive representation of Havana’s population and delegations from other provinces in the western part of the country is expected for the ceremony, which is previewed to begin at 7:00 tonight Cuban time.
The press has still not been informed regarding the organization of the ceremony, the previewed speakers and the artistic performances that will be included. However, it is presumed that several of the visiting presidents will speak as well as President Raúl Castro on behalf of the Cuban government and people.
The ceremony of the transfer of Fidel Castro’s ashes to the island’s eastern region will begin this Wednesday at 7 am. The organized itinerary recalls the tour made by the Freedom Caravan which the Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro followed in January 1959, and will be followed on its way by the inhabitants of the different provinces and Cuban towns.
The caravan will arrive in Santiago de Cuba on Saturday, where another mass rally will take place in the evening in Antonio Maceo Plaza de la Revolución. On Sunday, the revolutionary leader’s ashes will be deposited in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in a ceremony with a restricted assistance.
Ben Rhodes in Havana
The United States will not have an official delegation to the funeral rites of Fidel Castro; however, the White House announced this Tuesday that the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications for U.S. President Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, will travel to the island to represent his country in the funeral of the revolutionary leader.
Rhodes, an outstanding figure in the negotiations for the reestablishment of relations between both nations, will be accompanied by Jeffrey DeLaruentis, the United States’ topmost representative in Cuba. This was confirmed by presidential spokesman Josh Earnest, who had previously confirmed that neither Obama nor Vice President Joseph Biden would attend the ceremonies of posthumous homage to Fidel.
First posthumous song
The video clip of Cabalgando con Fidel is the tribute of singer-songwriter Raúl Torres that has started being shared on Facebook and Twitter.
The theme, recorded last November 26, is a production of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba and the Abdala recording label; it was premiered this Monday on Cuban Television.
In addition to Torres, in Cabalgando con Fidel Torres is accompanied by singers Eduardo Sosa, Luna Manzanares and Annie García, trumpet player Yasek Manzano and director Enrique Pérez Mesa, and the strings of Cuba’s National Symphony Orchestra, as well as tres player Pancho Amat, who was in charge of the piece’s orchestration.
Torres, famous for works like Se fue and Candil de la nieve, also composed El regreso del amigo, dedicated to deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in March 2013.
