Fervent Cubans salsa into Fidel Castro’s 90th birthday

On the stroke of midnight, a live band played ‘Happy Birthday’ in honour of the iconic leftist revolutionary on the ‘Anti-imperialist Tribune’, a plaza located outside the newly-opened US embassy, while fireworks exploded on the other side of the bay. Colourful floats carrying dancers and salsa bands stretched for kilometres down the Malecon, as Havana’s annual carnival was combined this year with Fidel’s birthday concert. 

“This is the best gift we can give him, this party,” said dancer Leydis Campos, 25, decked in a skimpy limegreen outfit, her eyelids caked in glitter. “To 90 years past, and to 90 more!” 

Cuba has gone into overdrive this month honouring ‘El Comandante’ who led its 1959 revolution and built a Communist-run state on the doorstep of the United States, surviving what it claims were hundreds of assassination attempts along the way.

Tributes have ranged from the conventional such as photo exhibits about his life, to the outlandish, with one cigar maker rolling the longest smoke in the world, measuring 90 meters, in Fidel’s honour. While many Cubans criticize Castro for having restricted personal freedoms and imposed a Soviet-style command economy, others revere him for having freed Cuba from US domination and provided universal access to healthcare and education. 

“Fidel is the best thing that happened to our country,” said Aldo Zamora, 40, selling candy-coloured balloon animals. Fidel handed over the reins of power in 2008 to his younger brother Raul due to an intestinal ailment that nearly killed him, although he retained the title ‘Historic Leader’.