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Fidel Castro's death has been announced by Cuban state television:
Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, one of the world's longest-serving and most iconic leaders, has died aged 90. His younger brother and successor as president Raul Castro announced the news on state television.
Castro toppled the government in 1959, introducing a Communist revolution. He defied the US for decades, surviving many assassination plots. His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. Critics saw him as a dictator.
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 later on Saturday. "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday)," he said. "Towards victory, always!" he added, using a revolutionary slogan. A period of official mourning has been declared on the island until 4 December, when his ashes will be laid to rest in the south-eastern city of Santiago.
Also at Bloomberg (world leaders react), Washington Post, NYT, The Guardian, CNN, NPR, WSJ, PBS, and Reuters. Editorials at the Miami Herald and Daily Beast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @03:45PM
It would be interesting to consider how Castro and Cuba would have developed if the government of the Unitd States had embraced him and opened trade instead of villifying him and embargoing the nation.
I've heard, but haven't bothered to track it down, that his original plan was to make Cuba a democracy within 2 years. But that got derailed in his scramble to keep up with all of the covert attacks by the US. There is a theory that dictators are created almost by accident - that events happen which they respond to poorly, but that they can't walk back for fear of either their personal safety (mob violence and legal prosecution) or loss of public confidence. The effects of those responses compound over time and one day the guy wakes up and he's a Mubarak or a Marcos at which point they are a prisoner to the system too, just with better accommodations.