Cuban mourn former president Fidel Castro’s death

Cuba is mourning the death of Fidel Castro, the country’s former president and leader of the Communist revolution, who died on Saturday aged 90, as nine days of mourning began.

Alcohol sales were suspended, flags flew at half-staff and shows and concerts were cancelled after his younger brother and successor, President Raul Castro, told the country on Friday that Fidel had died at 10:29 p.m., without giving a cause of death.

Giant rallies are planned in Havana's Revolution Square and in the eastern city of Santiago to honour Castro, who died aged 90, six decades after the brothers set out from Mexico to overthrow U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

His ashes will be interred at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba on 4 December, the Cuban government announced. Before that, a series of memorials will be held in Havana and Castro’s ashes will travel along the route of the Caravan of Freedom that took place in January 1959.

Large groups took to the streets on Saturday waving flags and chanting “I am Fidel” to salute Castro, who dominated the island’s political life for generations.

Newspapers were printed in black ink to mourn Castro, instead of the usual red of the official Communist Party daily Granma, and the blue of Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), the paper of the Communist youth.

There will be no top level games of baseball - Castro’s passion after politics - for the nine-day period of mourning, the sport’s national federation declared.

“For me, it's my mother first, my children, my father, then Fidel,” father-of-five Rafael Urbay, 60, said as he manned a government photo and printing store in downtown Havana, remembering his early years spent on a remote island off the mainland with no drinking water.

“We weren't just poor. We were wretched,” he said. “Then came Fidel and the revolution. He gave me my humanity. I owe him everything.”

Cubans will be able to pay homage to Castro at the José Martí memorial in Havana on 28 and 29 November, while a mass rally will be held in the capital on the evening of 29 November.

There was no heightened military or police presence to mark the passing of the epochal revolutionary leader, and at Havana University, Castro's alma mater, hundreds of students gathered to wave huge Cuban flags and shout "Viva Fidel and Viva Raul."

"Fidel isn't dead because the people are Fidel," shouted a local student leader dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt. "I am Fidel," he continued, a refrain quickly adopted by the crowd.

Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost 50 years before Raul took over in 2008.

His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. But he was also accused of suppressing opposition.

Leaders and politicians from across the world have paid tribute to Castro, the firebrand leader who headed a rebel army to unlikely victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 US presidents during his near 50-year rule.