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Castro's ashes stay overnight in "cradle" of Cuban independence

Xinhua, December 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The caravan carrying the ashes of Cuban revolution leader Fidel Castro stayed Friday night in the eastern city of Bayamo, the "cradle" of Cuban independence.

The cedar urn holding the ashes of Castro was placed at the local Nico Lopez Park, where thousands of people gathered to pay tribute to the late leader, who had ruled the Caribbean island for 47 years.

Bayamo is considered the "cradle" of the wars for independence from Spanish colonialists, after Carlos Manuel de Cespedes led the first uprising against the Spanish crown in 1868, starting the Ten Years' War, the first of three liberation wars.

Revolutionaries in Bayamo attacked on July 26, 1953, when Castro led a squad in Santiago de Cuba against President Fulgencio Batista, at the very beginning of the Cuban Revolution.

On Saturday the caravan will continue its march eastward to Santiago de Cuba, where Castro's ashes will be buried. Castro died on Nov. 25 at the age of 90. Endi