Cuba quiet as islanders prepare Castro tributes

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

Throngs of islanders are expected to pay their last respects to Castro’s remains there starting today, in the shadow of Havana’s towering monument to independence hero José Marti and a huge 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 would be able to access the square.

Authorities called on islanders to go there to make a “solemn oath of fulfilment with the concept of the revolution”.

Cuba’s government declared nine days of national mourning following Castro’s death on Friday night at the age of 90, and this normally vibrant city has been notably subdued since.

On Saturday night, the Malecon, Havana’s social centre, 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.

A mass public ceremony is planned at the square tomorrow.

Elian Gonzalez, who as a boy survived a shipwreck and became the centre of an international custody battle in Florida in 2000, said Castro will still be with Cubans despite his death.

It’s “not right to talk about Fidel in the past tense… but rather that Fidel will be”, Gonzalez said.

He was a young boy when he, his mother and others attempted a sea crossing between Cuba and the US nearly two decades ago. His mother died on the voyage, but he survived and was taken to Florida.

A bitter dispute broke out between his relatives in the US and his father back home.

Castro made the issue a national cause célèbre and led huge demonstrations demanding Elian be returned to his father.

US authorities eventually sent him back to Cuba.