Havana: The death of Juan Almeida Bosque, a vice president who was one of the last giants of Cuba`s 1959 revolution, plunged the island into mourning Saturday and was a stark reminder of the mortality of all of Cuba`s aging leaders — including brothers Raul and Fidel Castro.
He was the first of Cuba`s revolutionary leaders to die since President Raul Castro`s wife Vilma Espin, a one-time guerrilla commander in her own right, passed away in June 2007 at the age of 77.
A statement in government media said Almeida died of a heart attack late Friday at the age of 82, but will "live on forever in the hearts and minds of his compatriots." The government declared a national day of mourning to begin at 8 am Sunday and ordered all flags flown at half-staff.
Almeida was one of three surviving rebel leaders who still bore the honorary title "Commander of the Revolution" and a highly visible member of Cuba`s thinning old guard, most of whom are in their late 70s and early 80s.
His death "is a reminder of what everyone knows, which is that the original generation is in its final laps," Phil Peters, a Cuba expert at the Washington-area think tank the Lexington Institute, said.
Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since he fell gravely ill in 2006. The 83-year-old formally turned over power to 77-year-old Raul in February 2008, though he is still head of Cuba`s Communist Party and often publishes his thoughts on current events in state media outlets.
Officials surrounding the Castros are also well past the age when most people retire. Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, who is second only to Raul in the leadership, is 78. Another important Communist Party leader, Jose Ramon Fernandez, is 85.
The two living "Comandantes de la Revolucion," Guillermo Garcia and Ramiro Valdes, are 81 and 77, respectively.
Younger leaders have come and gone on the Cuban political scene, but any who emerge as potential successors to the old guard have not lasted long.
In the most recent shake-up in March, several prominent younger government ministers were ousted — including then-Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Carlos Lage, a vice president and Cabinet secretary whose broad powers had made him de facto economics czar. Lage had often been mentioned as a possible successor to Raul.
Almeida, originally a bricklayer who began working at age 11, was the only black commander among the early rebel leaders. He was a decisive voice in the battle to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and in the early years following the January 1, 1959, triumph of the Cuban revolution.
With a full head of white hair and moustache, Almeida was a highly visible member of Cuba`s ruling elite, sitting on the Communist Party`s politburo and serving as a vice president on the Council of State, the country`s supreme governing body. He cut back on activities in December 2003, citing heart problems.
Almeida joined the fight against Batista`s dictatorship in March 1952 as a young law student at the University of Havana, where he met Fidel Castro, another aspiring attorney.
Almeida was at Castro`s side a year later, on July 26, 1953, when Cuba`s future president led an armed attack on the Moncada, a military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. It was a disaster and Almeida and both Castros were imprisoned. But that failure launched the revolutionary battle that triumphed 5 1/2 years later.
Freed under an amnesty granted to the young revolutionaries, Almeida accompanied the Castros and others to Mexico, where they formed a guerrilla army. They returned to Cuba in December 1956 on the American yacht "Granma" and launched their battle from the island`s eastern Sierra Maestra.
Almeida, the Castro brothers and Argentine-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara were among only 16 who survived the landing, in which most of the rebels were killed by government troops.
"No one here gives up!" Almeida shouted to Guevara at the time, coining an enduring slogan of the Cuban revolution and ensuring his place in Cuban communist history.
Authorities were organising a ceremony on Sunday in Almeida`s honour at the monument of Cuban revolutionary hero Jose Marti on Havana`s Revolution Plaza and other locations around the country.
"He was a father of Cuba. Everyone liked and respected him," said Luiz Vizcaino, a retired Havana resident who woke up early Saturday to the news.
The government said Almeida`s body would not lie in state, according to his wishes, and funeral arrangements would be announced later. Details of his personal life were always closely guarded, and it was not clear how many survivors he had.
Bureau Report
