Urgent: Fidel Castro, former Cuban leader, dies aged 90

Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90, Cuban state television announced on Saturday.

One of the world’s most controversial leaders, survived countless assassination attempts and premature obituaries, but in the end proved mortal after suffering a long battle with illness.

The announcement was long expected, given the Former President’s age and health problems.

The Communist party and state apparatus has prepared for this moment since July 2006, when Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery and ceded power to his brother, Raúl, who remains in charge.

Fidel wrote occasional columns for the party paper, Granma, and made very occasional public appearances – most recently at the 2016 Communist Party Congress – but otherwise remained invisible.

Confirmation of his death will trigger celebrations in Miami, the centre of Cuba’s exile community, and mourning among leftwing admirers around the world. For many Cubans on the island who grew up in his shadow, it will be a moment of profound ambivalence.

  

More than half a century ago, his guerrilla army replaced Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship with communist rule that challenged the US and turned the island into a cold-war crucible.

Sources: AlJazeera, The Guardian, El País