3rd LD Writethru: Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro dies at 90

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died late Friday at the age of 90, said his brother Raul, the current leader of Cuba.

"With deep sorrow I report to the Cuban people that our beloved leader Fidel Castro passed away at 10:29 p.m. on Friday," said Raul Castro in a statement broadcast on Radio Reloj. ' His body will be cremated according to his will. The organizing committee for his funeral will give more details of the mourning.

Castro had led Cuba for nearly half a century before stepping down in 2006 for health reasons. He was succeeded by Raul Castro.

Fidel Castro spent the last years of his life largely out of the public eye, writing editorials on world affairs for Cuba's official Granma daily, and receiving dignitaries at his home in Havana.

The last such meeting was with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang on Nov. 15.

Shocked by his death, Cubans go out to mourn the revolutionary leader with great sorrow on the streets in Havana.

At the renowned Presidents' Avenue in central Havana, David Matinez, 19, said he heard the news from a policeman, who asked him and his friends to turn down the music as a gesture of respect.

"This is shocking news. Although Fidel is 90 years old, it still comes as a surprise to everyone. Fidel has always been a father figure to all Cubans. There would be nothing that we have now without him," said Matinez.

Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926 in Biran, a village in Holguin Province, as the son of Spanish immigrant Angel Castro and Cuban farmer Lina Ruz.

He became well-known worldwide after he led the 1959 Cuban revolution that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Almost immediately, the United States moved to topple Castro, fearing the socialist revolution would inspire the rest of Latin America.

Washington pressed Cuba on many fronts, including economically and financially, by imposing a trade embargo in February 1962 that continues to this day.

Washington's covert war on Castro is well documented, from Operation Mongoose designed to disrupt life in Cuba in any way possible, to numerous assassination attempts, which even the CIA admits were often "laughably inept."

Castro once quipped, "If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal." Endi