Cuban President Raúl Castro said Saturday that Cuba will not name any streets or erect an public monuments in honor of his brother Fidel, in keeping with the former leader’s expressed desires, reports The Guardian.
During the last stop on Fidel’s funeral procession, which began in Havana and ended in the eastern city of Santiago’s Revolution Plaza, Raúl told the crowd of thousands that this wish would actually be made into law.
He said the country’s National Assembly would pass the mandate in its next session, fulfilling his brother’s desire that, “once dead, his name and likeness would never be used on institutions, streets, parks or other public sites, and that busts, statutes or other forms of tribute would never be erected.”
Fidel Castro, who died Nov. 25 at age 90, kept his name off public sites during his time in office because he said he wanted to avoid the development of a “cult of personality.”
Castro’s ashes arrived Saturday afternoon in Santiago, ending a four-day journey across Cuba that began after a rally in Havana’s Revolution Plaza.
The Guardian reports that thousands of people welcomed the leader’s remains to shouts of “Fidel! I am Fidel!” Then hundreds of thousands gathered in Santiago, Fidel’s birthplace, on Saturday night, cheering speeches by the heads of state-run groups of small farmers, women, revolutionary veterans and neighborhood-watch committee members.
The event was attended by Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega and Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, along with both former Brazilian Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, The Guardian reports.
Castro’s ashes will be interred Sunday morning in Santiago’s Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, ending the official mourning period.
Read more at The Guardian.
Also on The Root:
“Black Radicals Owe a Great Deal to Fidel Castro”
“Revolutionary Road: Navigating Fidel Castro’s Polarizing Legacy”
“The Love Affair Between Fidel Castro and You Is a Lie”
“Fidel Vive! A Cuban-American Activist Reflects on El Comandante”