Fidel Castro is dead — and reactions to the revolutionary leader's passing are as varied as opinions about him were in life.
The longtime Cuban comandante died at 10:29 p.m. on Friday, his brother and current Cuban President Raul Castro announced with a shaky voice shortly after midnight. He was 90.
“With profound pain, I have to sadly inform you,” Castro said in Spanish, “that today, the commander and leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died.”
As word got out that Castro would be cremated in Havana on Saturday morning, world leaders took to social media to express love — and hate — for the cigar-smoking ruler, who led the island nation with an iron fist between 1959 and 2008.
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro dead at 90
President-elect Donald Trump took a neutral tone when tweeting about the news.
“Fidel Castro is dead!” he wrote Saturday morning.
Fellow socialist and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was among the first to praise the controversial Cuban’s leadership.
“To all the revolutionaries of the world: it is now up to us to follow his legacy and flag of independence, socialism and homeland,” Maduro tweeted in Spanish. “(Castro) made history along with the nations of the world to create a path of dignity.”
Remembering the life and career of the Cuban communist
Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Castro as an “eminent statesman” and a major force behind strong Russian-Cuban relations in “all spheres."
Former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, whose father was born in Cuba, wrote on Facebook that "Fidel Castro's death cannot bring back his thousands of victims, nor can it bring comfort to their families. Today we remember them and honor the brave souls who fought the lonely fight against the brutal Communist dictatorship he imposed on Cuba."
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