Thousands of Cubans gather to pay last tribute to Fidel Castro

SANTIAGO DE CUBA

Tens of thousands of Cubans rallied on Saturday to pay one more tribute to the late leader Fidel Castro before his ashes are buried in the cradle of his revolution.

The crowd in Revolution Plaza in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba waved small Cuban flags and held pictures of Castro at a ceremony led by his brother, President Raul Castro.

A convoy carrying a cedar urn containing his ashes had arrived earlier in the day following a four-day, 900-kilometer funeral procession across the country.

Raul Castro, who took over when his brother fell ill in 2006, will deliver an eagerly awaited speech during the massive tribute with foreign dignitaries, the second such gathering this week after a huge rally in Havana on Tuesday.

The guest list includes African leaders, leftist Latin American allies such as Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, and Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, who called Castro his 'second father'.

"He fought and won, so I think he left all of the people of Latin America a magnificent example," the leftist former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said. "It's a difficult time for us in Latin America, especially in Brazil."

Capping a nine-day mourning period, the remains will be interred on Sunday during a private ceremony at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, where the 19th-century independence hero Jose Marti is buried.

Castro's death on November 25 at age 90 has fuelled discussions about his divisive legacy and the direction the country may take without the omnipresent leader, who ruled for almost half a century.

Tearful supporters have cheered him for the free education and health care he developed on the island, while detractors call him a brutal dictator who imprisoned dissidents and ran the economy to the ground.

After Fidel is laid to rest, all eyes will turn to Raul Castro's next move. He has implemented modest economic reforms, vowed to step down in 2018 and restored diplomatic ties with the United States.

ETERNAL COMANDANTE

Castro has been hailed in almost religious terms since his death, with the communist party newspaper Granma calling him the "eternal comandante."

Children in school uniforms, veterans in military fatigues and entire families waved Cuba's flags and chanted "Fidel!" as the ashes arrived in Santiago.

"He has been the father of all Cubans and all the people in need in the world," said Margarita Aguilera, the 54-year-old director of a state tobacco company who painted the words "farewell, comandante" on a white stone in front of a house.

Although the government has already held a rally with two dozen foreign presidents in Havana on Tuesday, Santiago holds a special place in Castro's life.

"This is the cradle. Everything started here," said Victor Rivera Coca, 52, a cook who came from the town of Las Tunas, three hours away by car, with his wife and three-year-old son.

On July 26, 1953, the Castro brothers launched a failed attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago.

Although the rebels were jailed, the raid put Castro on the map and he would eventually go into exile in Mexico.

"History will absolve me," the trained lawyer famously said at his trial.

DISSIDENTS LIE LOW

Three years after the Moncada defeat, the Castro brothers and their band of bearded rebels returned to Cuba aboard a ship named Granma. On Friday, Cuba marked 60 years since the yacht landed in a southeastern beach.

The rebels fled into the Sierra Maestra mountains, launching a guerrilla war that would end in triumph against the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.

Following their victory, Castro celebrated by touring the island from Santiago to Havana. This week's "caravan of freedom" took his ashes on the reverse route.

While hundreds of thousands of people have gathered along the road to bid farewell, the government has encouraged Cubans to sign a pledge to defend his revolution.

Meanwhile, dissidents have kept a low profile during the commemorations, calling off regular protests, although they plan to resume their demonstrations after Castro's burial.