Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who seized power in 1959, took over U.S. property on the island, embraced the Soviet Union and forced thousands of Cubans into exile, has died at the age of 90.
With a shaking voice, Raul Castro announced on state TV that his brother Fidel died at 10:29 p.m. Friday.
Cuban media had not reported the story on the island in any detail by 1 a.m. Saturday. Little information about cause or circumstance of death other than Raul's announcement, was available.
Castro fell ill in July 2006, when he handed power to his brother Raul. He made some public appearances after that, but few of his trademark grandiose addresses.
In its announcement, The New York Times said, "Castro brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere, bedeviled 11 American presidents and briefly pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war."
Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chair of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, was one of the first Floridians to react.
“The day that the people, both inside the island and out, have waited for has arrived," Cuban-American Ros-Lehtinen said. "A tyrant is dead and a new beginning can dawn on the last remaining communist bastion of the Western hemisphere. ..."
But, she said, "Not until the gulags are closed, elections are held, political prisoners are freed and liberty is restored can the United States lawfully end its embargo against the communist regime in Havana. The time to act is now."
The revolutionary lived long enough to see a historic thaw in relations between Cuba and the United States. President Barack Obama announced in December that the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and urged Congress to lift a 52-year-old economic embargo.
Cuban President Raul Castro announced the Obama breakthrough to the nation, but observers noted Fidel's silence on the matter.
Even before midnight Cuban Americans -- many of whose family members had been persecuted, tortured and stripped of their property by the communist dictator -- were literally dancing in the streets.
Social media was alight with the news at 1 a.m. EST, particularly from South Floridians. Some of their Twitter comments:
Orlando Alzugaray: "My prayers are for those getting closure from his passing. The world is a better place tonight with the termination of this disease."
Lincoln Diaz-Balart: "Fidel Castro was the most brutal and destructive dictator in the history of Latin America."
Rep. Jose Felix Diaz: "At La Carreta for the celebration of the death of a tyrant."
Janell Hendren: "Oooh I hope there's a parade in Little Havana tomorrow followed by one huge block party..."
Danny Rivero: "Champagne popping in front of Versailles in Little Havana."
"There are few individuals in the 20th century who had a more profound impact on a single country than Fidel Castro had in Cuba," Robert Pastor, a former national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, told CNN in 2012.
"He reshaped Cuba in his image, for both bad and good," said Pastor, who died in 2014. "Cuba will be a different place because he lived and he died."
"He was a historic figure way out of proportion to the national base in which he operated," said noted Cuba scholar Louis A. Perez Jr., author of more than 10 books on the island and its history.
"Cuba hadn't counted for much in the scale of politics and history until Castro," said Wayne Smith, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba from 1979 to 1982.
Castro became famous enough -- or infamous enough -- that he could be identified by only one name. A mention of "Fidel" left little doubt who was being talked about.
Cuban born Felix Reyes, 82, tears rolling down his cheeks in Little Havana, gets the last word:
"I never thought I would live to see this," Reyes told a TV newsman. "I am going to the cemetery now to tell my Maria."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
