Fidel Castro finally laid to rest in private ceremony

Former Cuban revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro who died on Friday November 25 at the age of 9 has been laid to rest in a private ceremony in Cuba on Sunday.

The ceremony was attended by members of Fidel Castro's family, the ruling Politburo of the single-party system he founded, and Latin American leaders who installed closely allied leftist governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Brazil.

 

Castro seized control of the US-allied Caribbean island and transformed it into a western outpost of Soviet-style communism, ruling it with absolute power for nearly a half century.

After nine days of fervent national mourning and wall-to-wall homages to Castro on state-run media, the government barred independent coverage of the funeral, releasing a handful of photos and brief descriptions of the ceremony later in the day.

Castro's ashes were delivered to his younger brother and successor President Raul Castro, who wore his olive general's uniform as he placed a wooden box containing Fidel Castro's ashes into the side of a granite boulder that has become Cuba's only official monument of the former leader. The niche was sealed with a green marble plaque emblazed with the name "Fidel" in gold letters.