360-degree videos of Little Havana after Fidel Castro’s death

“Feels weird”, said Gabriel Morales, a 40-year-old financial executive in Miami, whose parents left Cuba after Castro came to power.

Fidel Castro led a rebel army to improbable victory, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 USA presidents during his half century rule of Cuba.

The polarising dictator was given a far more controversial send-off in Miami, where people threw parties to celebrate his death. “This is ideal timing to achieve that and we are looking forward to the best for the Cuban people”.

“When given the opportunity to recognize the Castro regime for what it was – brutal, oppressive, and murderous – our Prime Minister instead chose to lionize the man who denied his people basic freedoms for decades”, Leitch wrote on Facebook.

Depending on whom you talk to, Fidel Castro was a revered revolutionary legend, or a despised tyrannical dictator.

The President noted that the relationship between the United States and Cuba has been “marked by discord and profound political disagreements” over the past 60 years.

That thaw was welcomed particularly by younger Cuban-Americans but was more problematic for numerous older generation, who have supported strict U.S. sanctions for decades as a means to pressure the repressive Cuban government. “And so the hope is – and I think the celebrations here show – everybody here hopes for a free Cuba soon and for human rights on the island to come to pass”. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling USA trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to Raul. They will give thanks for the Cuban doctors who have not only tended to their people but criss-crossed the globe helping others.

The Castro commemoration is sure to be attended by world leaders from around the globe, reflecting the stature Fidel achieved in the worldwide community. Some see Castro as a symbol of the old generation and many hope his death will mark a changing of the guard in Cuba.

In his final years, Fidel Castro no longer held leadership posts.

These refugees urged their USA -born children and grandchildren to forget about Cuba.

We send our love and support to Cuba during this major event because, after all, Castro has dominated the history of Cuba and life of the Cuban people since 1959. “It will be important for the United States to tread carefully: now more than ever, the Cubans have to own what happens next”.

Jose Fernandez, Cuban Vice President, said, “What Fidel achieved in the social order of this country has not been achieved by any poor nation and even by many rich countries, despite being submitted to enormous pressures”.

Castro was steadfast in his devotion to the socialist ideals of the revolution.

Thousands of people banged pots, waved Cuban flags and whooped in jubilation on Calle Ocho, the heart of the Cuban exile community in Florida.

Fidel Castro slammed Obama’s visit in an article published in the Cuban communist party newspaper.

The Argentine football legend lamented Castro’s death saying “I’m terribly sad as he was like a second father”. Yet not even his worst detractors can deny his profound historical impact and the lasting influence on Cuba, the country he ruled for nearly half a century, and on the lives of all Cubans both on the island and overseas.