The fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959, Fidel Castro, is dead.
The renown revolutionist who defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American Presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, died Friday, aged 90.
His death was announced by Cuban state television.
In declining health for several years, Castro had orchestrated what he hoped would be the continuation of his communist revolution, and stepped aside in 2006 due to serious illness, leaving power to his brother, Cuba's President Raúl Castro.
Fidel Castro held onto power longer than any other living national leader, except Queen Elizabeth II.
"He became a towering international figure whose importance in the 20th century far exceeded what might have been expected from the head of state of a Caribbean island nation, of 11 million people," quoted The New York Times.