Cuban People Honor Fidel Castro in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery

People from different countries arrive every day in Santiago de Cuba to pay tribute to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro

The people of Santiago de Cuba and many visiting the provincial capital continue to render tribute to Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, in Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, a designated National Monument, where his ashes were laid to rest in a simple ceremony on Sunday, December 4.

Since the afternoon of that day, a long line of people has formed, many with flowers in hand, waiting to silently pass by the site where Fidel’s remains rest.

By 7:00am on Monday, when the honor guard begins, waiting to enter the cemetery were students from Rafael María de Mendive High School, where Fidel completed his elementary studies, and many raised their open hands to their foreheads as they passed before his grave, as the youngest Cubans learn to salute Che.

Ninth-grader Onel Alejandro Madruga Fernández, from the Hugo Chávez secondary school in Havana, traveled with his grandmother and aunt to be close to Fidel at this painful time, since he is like a father to all Cubans, the young man said, reiterating his commitment to follow Fidel’s example.

Luis Cabrera, Nicaraguan ambassador in Cuba, was there, saying it was the duty of all revolutionaries to honor Fidel here, since Fidel is revolution, peace, solidarity, the friend who deserves the gratitude of the entire Nicaraguan people.

The site is open everyday until 5:00pm. The changing of the honor guard takes place every 30 minutes at Fidel’s tomb and that of Martí, musically accompanied by “Elegía a José Martí” the work of Juan Almeida Bosque.