Cuba's National Assembly approved a law on Tuesday that bans erecting commemorative statues of Fidel Castro or naming public places after him, in accordance with the wishes of the revolutionary leader who died last month. Castro always said he did not want a cult of personality although critics point out that the cult was everywhere.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Voice of America. </s> Cuba's National Assembly approved a law on Tuesday that bans commemorative statues of Fidel Castro and naming public places after him, in accordance with the wishes of the revolutionary leader, who died last month. A woman walks past near beside a wall with a notice reading "Long Live Fidel" in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, December 3, 2016.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Channelnewsasia.com. </s> Cuba's National Assembly on Tuesday approved a law prohibiting the use of Fidel Castro's name to designate public sites or using his image for monuments, according to the wishes of the former president, who died on November 25.

 

 At the session, headed by President Raul Castro, the more than 600 Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved the bill adhering to the desire of the late leader "to avoid any appearance of a personality cult", Efe news agency reported.

 

 The wishes of the Cuban Revolutionary leader, who died in Havana at age 90, were made public by his brother Raul on December 3 during a huge farewell ceremony in Santiago de Cuba, where the next day Fidel's ashes were interred.

 

 According to the law, "as an expression of the will and the political ethics that always accompanied Fidel, it is prohibited to use his name to name institutions, plazas, parks, avenues, streets and other public places, as well as for any kind of decoration, recognition or honorific title".

 

 The law also "prevents using his image to erect monuments, busts, statues, commemorative plaques and other similar forms of tribute."

 

 The prohibition also includes the use of Castro's image referring to him "as a brand name for commercial or advertising ends".

 

 However, the law establishes exceptions involving the study and dissemination of the knowledge and work of the former President.

 

 On March 20, 1959, less than three months after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution headed by Castro, the new Council of Ministers approved Law No. 174 prohibiting the creation of any monuments, statues or busts to living national personalities. </s> Fidel Castro’s wishes have been sealed in writing. Respecting his denunciation of a personality cult, Cuba’s National Assembly approved a new law that bans commemorative statues and naming public places after the late revolutionary on Tuesday (Dec. 27).

According to The Huffington Post, the law does not prevent artists from using Castro’s figure in music, literature or the visual arts nor extends to photos of him hanging in public places, such as an image of a young Castro dressed in military fatigues spotted in Havana’s Revolution Square.

“His fighting spirit will remain in the conscience of all Cuban revolutionaries, today, tomorrow and always,” President Raul Castro, Fidel’s successor and younger brother, told the Assembly.

Following his death in November, Cuba commemorated their former president and prime minister with two mass memorial services and nine days of mourning while Cuban-Americans celebrated the end of an era.

READ: How Celia Cruz Would Have Reacted To Fidel Castro’s Death </s> Cuba's National Assembly approved a law on Tuesday that bans erecting commemorative statues of Fidel Castro or naming public places after him, in accordance with the wishes of the revolutionary leader who died last month.

 

 Castro always said he did not want a cult of personality although critics point out that the cult was everywhere. His words are posted on billboards nationwide and his name is invoked at every public event.

 

 Every since his death, a large photo of a young Castro dressed in military fatigues, with a rifle and pack slung over his back, has hung from a buildings on Havana's Revolution Square.

 

 "Our main homage will not be to name everything we build after him but rather to keep his work alive and continue our socialist society," lawmaker Jennifer Bello Martinez, president of the University Students' Federation, was quoted as saying by official media outlet Juventud Rebelde.

 

 President Raul Castro had already announced that his older brother did not want to be immortalized with statues or public places named in his name.

 

 The law does not ban artists from using Fidel Castro's figure in music, literature, dance, cinema or other visual arts, official media specified. Photos of him hanging up in offices, places of study or public institutions also may be kept.

 

 Castro, a leading Cold War figure who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and defied U.S. attempts to topple him, died on Nov. 25, aged 90, eight years after handing the presidency over to Raul.

 

 Cuba commemorated his death with nine official days of mourning and two mass memorial services.

 

 Hundreds of thousands of Cubans also turned out to greet a funeral cortege carrying Castro's ashes 600 miles (1,000 km) east to Santiago, retracing the route that his rebels took upon overthrowing the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959. </s> Cuba’s parliament has passed a law that no streets or parks will be named after late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in accordance with his final wish to prevent a personality cult.

“The law, passed on Wednesday also forbids any monuments to “El Comandante,” who died in November, and titles, decorations, or awards bearing his name,’’ parliament noted.

However, Castro’s name may not be used in any kind of advertising either.

Parliament added an exception to the ban that if an institute was found to carry out historical research into Castro, then it may be named after him.

President Raul Castro had revealed the last wish of his brother at his funeral.

“The leader of the revolution rejected any personality cult and he was consistent in this right up to the last hour of his life.”

Cubans, however, almost worshipped Fidel Castro as a cult during his lifetime.

According to the new law, his portrait will remain hanging in schools, businesses and army barracks.

Fidel Castro died on November 25 at the age of 90.

He ruled Cuba for 47 years, but not without controversy.

For some, he was a hero who liberated Cuba and helped it to develop, but for others he was a tyrant who suppressed dissent and denied Cubans basic democratic rights. </s> An image of late Cuba's President Fidel Castro is displayed on a screen in a public building in downtown Havana, Cuba, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba’s National Assembly approved a law on Tuesday that bans commemorative statues of Fidel Castro and naming public places after him, in accordance with the wishes of the revolutionary leader, who died last month.

Castro always said he did not want a cult of personality, although critics point out that the cult was everywhere. His words are posted on billboards nationwide and his name is invoked at every public event.

“His fighting spirit will remain in the conscience of all Cuban revolutionaries, today, tomorrow and always,” President Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother, told the Assembly, according to excerpts of his speech published by official media.

The best way to pay homage to “El Comandante” - the commander - is to follow his concept of revolution, the president said.

The new law does not ban artists from using Fidel Castro’s figure in music, literature, dance, cinema or other visual arts, official media specified. Photos of him hanging in offices, places of study or public institutions also may be kept.

Every since his death, a large photo of a young Castro dressed in military fatigues, with a rifle and pack slung over his back, has hung from a building in Havana’s Revolution Square.

Castro, a leading Cold War figure who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and defied U.S. attempts to topple him, died on Nov. 25 at the age of 90, eight years after handing the presidency over to Raul.

Cuba commemorated his death with nine official days of mourning and two mass memorial services.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans also turned out to greet a funeral cortege carrying Castro’s ashes 600 miles (1,000 km) east to Santiago, retracing the route that his rebels took when they overthrew the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959. </s> SANTIAGO, Cuba -- A wooden box containing Fidel Castro's ashes was placed by his brother and successor on Sunday into the side of a granite boulder that has become Cuba's only official monument to the man who ruled with absolute power for nearly a half century.

The private, early-morning 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.

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.

The ceremony began at 6:39 a.m. Cuba time when the military caravan bearing Castro's remains in a flag-draped cedar coffin left the Plaza of the Revolution in the eastern city of Santiago. Thousands of people lined the 2-mile route to Santa Ifigenia cemetery, waving Cuban flags and shouting "Long live Fidel!"

The ashes were delivered to Castro's younger brother and successor, President Raul Castro, who wore his olive general's uniform as he placed the remains into a niche in the enormous grey boulder that will serve as Fidel Castro's tomb. The niche was sealed with a green marble plaque emblazoned with the name "Fidel" in gold letters.

The tomb stands to the side of a memorial to the rebel soldiers killed in an attack that Castro led on Santiago's Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, and in front of the mausoleum of Cuban national hero Jose Marti.

As the funeral ended, martial music could be heard outside the cemetery, where Ines de la Rosa was among the mourners gathered. She said she would have liked to watch the interment on television, but "we understand how they as a family also need a bit of privacy."

The decision to keep the final farewell private came the morning after Raul Castro announced that Cuba would prohibit the naming of streets and monuments after his brother, and would bar the construction of statues of the former leader and revolutionary icon, in keeping with Fidel Castro's desire to avoid a cult of personality. In contrast, the images of his fellow revolutionary fighters Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto "Che" Guevara became common across Cuba in the decades since their deaths.

"All of us would like to put Fidel's name on everything, but in the end, Fidel is all of Cuba," said Juan Antonio Gonzalez, a 70-year-old retired economist in Cuba. "It was a decision of Fidel's, not Raul's, and I think he has to be respected."

Fidel Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista, exile in Mexico and a disastrous start to his rebellion before triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32, the youngest leader in Latin America. He inspired and supported revolutionaries from Latin America to Africa even as Cubans who fled to exile loathed him with equal measure.

One of those exiles, Armando Garcia, is a retired electronics salesman who left Cuba in 1963 for Little Havana in Miami. He said Sunday's funeral granted neither simple closure nor optimism for immediate change.

"It's a light at the end of the tunnel," Garcia said from the Versailles restaurant, a hub for exiles.

Garcia said it was painful to see leaders in some Latin American countries praising Castro "for supposedly liberating the poor, when in reality he has enslaved the poor."

He joked that there was no sadness at the restaurant about Castro's funeral: "It's the best funeral ever. Look at us. No one is crying, everyone is happy, no need for handkerchiefs. It's a party."

Jose Llanes, 70, said nobody should be fooled by any images from Cuba showing thousands of people mourning. "When people are oppressed, they are told what to do."

Aida Levitan, president of Artes Miami, a nonprofit organization that promotes Hispanic artists, said the funeral "instills a little bit of hope for the Cuban people that this is the beginning of the end."

"Many people are not optimistic because Raul Castro still runs the country, but Fidel was the mythical figure and so it feels there is a difference," she said. "Like a Spanish expression goes: There's no evil that survives 100 years."

Later Sunday, dozens of people gathered for a rally at the Cuban Memorial in Miami's Tamiami Park in honor of people who were victims of Castro's regime and those who died trying to overthrow him. People searched for names of deceased relatives on a black marble wall beneath an obelisk with a Cuban flag pattern.

Sylvia Iriondo, president of the group of Mothers and Women against Repression in Cuba, told the group that it was important to remember those victims and to remember that, "Fidel Castro, the dictator, was not a hero."

Information for this article was contributed by Fabiola Sanchez and Adriana Gomez Licon of The Associated Press. </s> Fidel Castro's ashes will be buried at a ceremony on December 4 in Santiago de Cuba. (Photo: AP)

Havana: Cuba declared nine days of public mourning Saturday for its late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and said his ashes will be buried at a ceremony on December 4 in Santiago de Cuba.

From November 26 to December 4, "public activities and shows will cease, the national flag will fly at half mast on public buildings and military installations," a statement from the state executive said.

Castro's ashes will be buried in the historic southeastern city of Santiago on December 4 after a four-day procession through the country, it added.

President Raul Castro earlier said that his older brother Fidel was to be cremated early Saturday.

Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 US presidents during his half century rule, died at age 90 in Havana.

His demise was announced by his brother and current President Raul Castro on national television. "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening," the president announced.
Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power approves a law banning commemorative statues of late President Fidel Castro, and the naming of public places after him, in accordance with the wishes of Castro, who died last month.