“It is 90 metres long, to commemorate 90 years of our comandante”, maker Jose Castelar, better known as “Cueto”, told AFP ahead of Castro’s birthday on 13 August.
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin greeted former head of Cuba, Fidel Castro, on his 90th birthday.
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro (L) listening to his brother Raul, Cuban President and new First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (CCPCC), during the final session of the 6th Cuban Communist Party Congress, on April 19, 2011.
For more about the pulse of Cuba’s politics, CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar interviewed Arturo Lopez-Levy, a lecturer of Cuban Studies at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.
It’s an uncertain time, with no settled consensus around Castro’s legacy.
“Under his leadership, the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban people were among the strongest supporters of South Africa’s struggle for liberation; lending various forms of material and political support to the liberation forces during the dark days of apartheid”, she said. There are no big rallies or parades planned, no publicly announced visits by foreign dignitaries.
He returns at the end to a critique of Obama, who appeared to anger the revolutionary leader with a March trip to Cuba in which he called for Cubans to look toward the future. “Soon I’ll be like all the others”.
That’s an idea that receives a qualified endorsement from many Cubans, who are deeply disenchanted with the paltry salaries, shortages and paralyzing inefficiency that remain hallmarks of Cuba’s centrally planned economy.
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Adulation of Fidel in the official media is grating to many, especially at a time when an economic slowdown is a reminder of the flaws in his utopian dreams and many Cubans are still desperately seeking to emigrate to the United States. They praise Cuba’s low crime, its health and educational benefits, its investments in making cultural activities and sports available to all, and its support for putting family and friends before work obligations. “They have been paying tributes since June”, said the 27-year- old, who once sang for Fidel as a child in a choir. “We have to lift up our economy, without selling ourselves, without denying our history, but we can’t live in the past, either”.
