Is Fidel Castro dead? A tomb appears to be ready

The rumor that Fidel Castro has died only continues to grow, despite no formal confirmation, with every day that passes without him making a statement on the historic reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.

While past rumors seemed to be wishful thinking from an exasperated exile community wishing to see their homeland free, or the dictator’s long-term absence from the public scene, the reasoning this time is different. A seemingly more mature exile community is connecting the dots between what Fidel Castro said long time ago and a new tomb built in a key location in Cuba.

SEE ALSO: Fidel Castro’s absence from diplomatic talks fuels death rumors

Is construction of Fidel Castro’s mausoleum finished?

The Cuban government just finished the discrete construction of a mausoleum at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, right next to the tomb of Cuban independence apostle José Martí.

“We don’t know if the tomb is finished. But, it must be because they already cleared the area after many months locked down. The area was enclosed several months with a dark tiled fence that hid the construction workers in there but it was already removed,” a source told “Diario de Cuba” this Friday.

Cubans recall Fidel Castro publicly mentioned he would like to rest beside the mastermind of the Cuban independence war of 1895. Castro actually based his strategy for the 1959 revolution on Marti’s plan to liberate Cuba from Spain. Castro organized a landing from exile with conspirators who were already on the island. He unified rural and urban uprising, and launched an invasion from East to West, all of it following Marti’s steps. He actually called José Martí the “Intellectual Author of the Attack to Moncada Headquarter”.

The Cuban government has not only finished the new tomb but has also revamped all roads in the perimeter of the cemetery in what looks like the preparation of a huge farewell.

Pantheon is ready for Fidel Castro

According to the same source, the actual tomb for the casket will be located underground inside the new pantheon: “It looks like a sort of fortress. There are many restricted areas. In fact, they opened two doors on the right wing for the people because all the front and left wing in front of Martí’s mausoleum are closed.”

Diario de Cuba also published that cemetery staffers were relocated far from Santa Ifigenia during a visit Raúl Castro made to the site on January 1.

This comes right in the time when US-Cuba diplomatic relations are at a watershed moment, closer than ever to reestablish a connection five decades of rupture. The Obama administration just announced that their new embassy in Havana could start operations as soon as January 15.

“They don’t want to announce his death before giving the people the hope of coming and going ‘normally’ to the United States,” said recognized Cuban dissident Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo to VOXXI.

For him, this is just another trick of the regime. “They will cremate him and his ashes will be spread in different places. They know very well wherever they put his tomb it would be vandalized and destroyed in the near future,” he said.

Negotiations with US would never happen in the presence of Fidel Castro according to many experts on Cuban politics. In fact, he torpedoed several attempts of various US administrations to shorten distance between the two shores in the past. They think Fidel must be dead or severely frail at least.

The reaction in Miami has been moderate in this occasion. We haven’t seen the massive demonstrations with the honking and cooking pan beating on the main streets of the city although preparations of the iconic Versailles restaurant. Many jokingly say that Raúl’s moves towards formal relations with US are the actual cause of Fidel’s death.

SEE ALSO: Alan Gross released from Cuba after five years

There might be a slight chance that part of the rumor, at least on Tweeter, began as users confused and re-tweeted the death of another public figure with the same name: Fidel Castro Odinga, who died several days ago at age 41 and was the son of a Kenyan politician.

However, Cuban official media denied rumors of an international press conference supposedly to be held in Havana on Friday but didn’t specify whether or not the octogenarian is dead or alive.

(function(d, s, id) {

var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];

if (d.getElementById(id)) return;

js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;

js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=313098648827735&version=v2.0”;

fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);

}(document, “script”, “facebook-jssdk”));

The post Is Fidel Castro dead? A tomb appears to be ready appeared first on Voxxi.