Havana plaza festooned for 2 days of Castro rites

A woman sits in the doorway of her home, decorated with a Cuban flag in honor of the late Fidel Castro, in the town of Regla on the outskirts of Havana on Sunday.
A woman sits in the doorway of her home, decorated with a Cuban flag in honor of the late Fidel Castro, in the town of Regla on the outskirts of Havana on Sunday.

HAVANA -- Workers spruced up the Cuban capital's sprawling Revolution Plaza and began setting up fencing Sunday in preparation for two days of tributes to deceased leader Fidel Castro.

photo

AP

An image of the late Fidel Castro sits on a chair in a government building Sunday in Havana. Cuba is observing nine days of mourning for the former president who ruled Cuba for half a century.

Throngs of islanders are expected to visit to pay their respects to Castro's remains starting today in the shadow of Havana's towering monument to independence hero Jose Marti and a sculpture of revolution leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma published an extensive list of planned street closures and information on how Cubans will be able to access the square, part of a special edition on Castro's life and achievements.

"Public activities and events will be suspended and national flags will fly at half-staff in public buildings and military installations," reported Granma, named for the yacht that carried Castro to Cuba to start his insurgency. "Radio and television will continue with programming that is informative, patriotic and historical."

The programming included Elian Gonzalez, the center of an international custody battle waged by Castro nearly two decades ago. Gonzalez said on government-run television that the Cuban leader's legacy will long outlive him.

It's "not right to talk about Fidel in the past tense ... but rather that Fidel will be," Gonzalez said. "Today more than ever, make him omnipresent."

Gonzalez was 5 when he, his mother and others attempted a sea crossing between Cuba and the United States in 1999. His mother died on the voyage, but he survived and was taken to Florida. A bitter dispute broke out between his relatives in the U.S., who wanted him to stay, and his father back home.

Castro made the issue a national cause celebre and led demonstrations demanding Elian be returned to his father. U.S. authorities eventually sent him back.

"Fidel was a friend who at a difficult moment was with my family, with my father, and made it possible for me to return to my father, to return to Cuba," Gonzalez said.

Authorities called on islanders to go to the square to make a "solemn oath of fulfillment with the concept of the revolution." A mass public ceremony is planned at the square Tuesday.

"It is a great sorrow. Everyone is feeling it," said Orlando Alvarez, a jeweler who was fishing on the seaside Malecon boulevard in the morning. "Everyone will be there" at the square, he added.

Cuba's government declared nine days of national mourning after Castro's death Friday night at age 90, and the normally vibrant city of Havana has been subdued since. The government is limiting liquor sales nationwide until Sunday, when the mourning period ends at noon.

On Saturday night, the Malecon, Havana's social center, was all but deserted, with dozens of people instead of the thousands who normally go to party there on weekends.

"I have never seen this square so quiet," Spanish tourist Miguel Gonzalez said as he took pictures of Revolution Plaza.

Tourists on Sunday said they were surprised but pleased to have been on the island during such a historic moment.

"I'm definitely going tomorrow to see everyone saying goodbye to Fidel," said Miguel Castillo, 52, a visitor from Costa Rica. "He was a symbol of resistance. The people of Latin America had long been listening to his voice, to his call for autonomy."

Marini Danilo, 30, a tourist from Italy, said he couldn't believe his vacation had turned into a chance "to live in such a big story."

"For me, he was just another dictator," Danilo said. "He was not my dictator; he was Cuba's. But it feels crazy to be here."

Miami turns reflective

Cuban-Americans in Miami largely stayed off the streets Sunday after a raucous daylong party in which thousands marked Castro's death. Celebration turned to somber reflection and church services.

At St. Brendan Catholic Church in the Miami suburb of Westchester, a member of the chorus read a statement by Archbishop Thomas Wenski about Castro's death before the service. There was no overt mention of Castro during the Sunday Mass. But during the reading of the Prayers of the Faithful, one of the two priests celebrating the Mass prayed for "an end to communism, especially in Cuba and Venezuela."

"Lord, hear our prayers," churchgoers responded.

Outside the church, Nelson Frau, a 32-year-old Cuban-American whose parents fled the island in 1962, said he wasn't surprised that Castro was not mentioned. He said Wenski's statement reflected the role of the Catholic Church in Miami as a mediator toward peace between the Cubans in Miami and those on the island.

"I think the church is trying to act as a mediator at this point, to try to move the Cuban people forward rather than backward, not only the exile community here, but also the Cuban people on the island," said Frau, who works in customer service.

Frau said celebrations of Castro's death on the streets of Miami were a "natural reaction."

"Let's not forget that this is an exile community that has suffered a lot over 50 years," Frau said. "He's an image of pain to a lot of people. It's a celebration not of his death, but a celebration of the end of this image of pain and suffering."

The pot-banging, car horn-honking, flag-waving throngs were much thinner in Little Havana and other Cuban-American neighborhoods on Sunday. People sipped their morning coffee outside the Versailles restaurant -- which had put up signs in Spanish calling itself the "House of the Exiles" -- where many of the demonstrations have been centered along Calle Ocho, or Eighth Street.

Later Sunday afternoon, people gathered anew outside the restaurant, forcing police to close the street down again as a chanting group carried a large Cuban flag. One group of Cuban exiles held a news conference at the Bay of Pigs museum, which commemorates the failed CIA-backed invasion in 1961. They called for a large rally Wednesday afternoon in Little Havana.

The Rev. Martin Anorga, 89, was a pastor at a Presbyterian church in Cuba, starting when he was in his 20s. He fled Cuba and later served as head pastor of the First Spanish Presbyterian Church in Miami for nearly three decades before retiring.

Anorga said he participated in anti-Castro groups in Miami for years. But in church services, he only would talk about the victims of Castro's regime, not the man himself.

"During services, they won't talk about politics," Anorga said. "When I was a pastor, we would pray for the victims of Castro in Cuba. The people who were hurt by Castro will never recover. Families were separated, estranged. We would pray for them."

Information for this article was contributed by Juan Zamorano, Curt Anderson, Ian Mader, Tamara Lush, Adrian Sainz and Josh Replogle of The Associated Press; and by Damien Cave of The New York Times.

A Section on 11/28/2016

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