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Fidel Castro's Ashes End Three-day Procession in Santiago de Cuba

by VOA News

   The ashes of the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro have arrived in the
   city of Santiago de Cuba, where they will be buried Sunday in the city
   where he started the Cuban revolution in 1953.

   The ashes, housed in a trailer pulled by an olive-green army jeep, have
   made a three-day procession across the island nation, greeted by
   hundreds of thousands of admirers mourning, cheering or chanting "I am
   Fidel!" as the cortege rolled by.

   On Saturday night, Santiago de Cuba was to hold a rally attended by
   such well-known Castro allies as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
   and soccer champion Diego Maradona.

   On Sunday, after a funeral ceremony attended by presidents and former
   presidents of Central and South American nations, Castro's remains will
   be interred beside those of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti in a
   cemetery in the eastern Cuban city.

   Others expected to attend the funeral include Nicaraguan President
   Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales, and former Brazilian
   Presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.

   Meanwhile, Raul Castro, 85, Fidel's brother, will continue to rule the
   country as he has done since assuming the presidency in February 2008.
   He has brought some reforms to the island nation, the most significant
   of which is the restoration of diplomatic ties with the United States.
   But he has pledged to step down in 2018, leaving Cuba's future more
   uncertain than it has been in recent years.

   An image of Cuba's late President Fidel Castro is raised as people wait
   for the arrival of the caravan carrying Castro's ashes in Santiago de
   Cuba, Cuba, Dec. 3, 2016.

   Impetus for change

   Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in Cuba for five years before his
   release in 2014, told VOA on Saturday that no matter who leads Cuba
   next, Cubans themselves are going to have to be behind any fundamental
   change in their country's government.

   "Nothing is going to change unless people change things," Gross said,
   adding that the Cuban people want a "peaceful dialogue" with the
   government.

   Gross, who was working in Cuba for an international development agency,
   was jailed in 2009 for allegedly spying while trying to facilitate
   internet and satellite connection to members of Cuba's Jewish
   population.

   Fidel Castro died November 25 at age 90. His body was cremated as Cuba
   began a nine-day period of mourning for the polarizing leader, who was
   celebrated by some as a champion of the poor and harshly criticized by
   others as a tyrant who wrecked the country's economy and violated human
   rights.

   The procession of his ashes moved east from Havana, following in
   reverse the route Castro and his rebels fighters took as they advanced
   on the capital from the Sierra Maestra mountains before taking power in
   January 1959.

   Castro, raised near Santiago de Cuba, launched his revolt against the
   rule of Fulgencio Batista in 1953 from the southeastern city, finally
   toppling the U.S.-backed leader and seizing power in 1959. He set up a
   one-party socialist government, which constantly defied Washington and
   allied itself with the former Soviet Union.

   VOA's Ira Melman contributed to this report.