The former revolutionary’s death was reported late Friday.
Castro at the UN General Assembly in 1979.
Associated Press
Fidel Castro, who led the Cuban revolution and defied the United States for nearly half a century, died Friday at the age of 90.
His death was announced on state television late Friday night by his younger brother and presidential successor Raúl Castro. A cause of death was not given, but Castro had been in poor health for more than a decade.
World leaders, sensitive to feelings in their own countries on the controversial figure, have reacted to Castro's death in either measured and glowing statements. State Council declared nine days of mourning, till December 4th. Flags will be flown at half mast and radio and television "will keep an informative, patriotic and historic transmission."
Castro stepped down from power permanently in 2008 after nearly five decades as prime minister and president of the island, and had made few public appearances in recent months. Sightings were increasingly bookended by rumors of his death, which often set social media abuzz for hours.
One of his last appearances was in April, meeting a group of Venezuelan visitors to Cuba, shortly before his brother, Raúl, sat down with US President Obama to discuss the thawing of relations between the two countries, the first meeting of its kind since 1956.
Castro cheers alongside his fellow revolutionaries in 1959.
Universalimagesgroup / Getty Images
In 1955, after a failed assault on the Moncada military barracks in the city of Santiago and a brief prison stint, Castro fled to Mexico City, where he assembled a group of 82 fighters, including the revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara. After months of planning, the unit boarded the Granma boat in November the following year in the port city of Tuxpan and soon disembarked on Las Coloradas beach, in southeast Cuba.
The group trekked into the Sierra Maestra mountain range, from where they fought then-President Fulgencio Batista's troops. After years of fighting, Castro's forces seized control of Havana, declaring a socialist government.
"We will renounce wealth to sacrifice ourselves for the country, to sacrifice ourselves for the homeland, to save the revolution that has many enemies — not many inside, but the ones it does have are powerful; many outside, and powerful, — that has many obstacles, because sometimes we ourselves, with our impatience, with our lightness, with our prejudices, are an obstacle to the revolution," said Castro when he took office in 1959.
Despite frequent target of US attempts to remove him from power in the early years of his reign — including the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, which lead to his declaring Cuba's alignment with the Soviet Union, and multiple assassination attempts — Castro managed to maintain a fierce grip on power throughout his rule.
The economic embargo the US placed against Cuba in 1960 and expanded in the years after also didn't manage to shake the former guerilla from his perch.