A sad day indeed. In addition to his legendary stature, Castro may well have been the most genuine and sincere politician of the 20th century in his quest for justice for Cuba and for humanity. He had a zest for life, and a romanticism about him which no other revolutionary has been able to match. His death and that of his comrades was virtually 100% guaranteed when he set sail for Cuba on the Granma, and yet he survived, fought, and won, and then proceeded to hold out against the empire to the north for over half a century. Cuban armies then helped destroy the vestiges of European colonialism in Africa, while armies of Cuban doctors marched across the world saving and improving millions of lives. Castro survived hundreds of assassination plots, almost a dozen US presidents, betrayal by the snakes in the Kremlin in the 90s, and then, as Comrade CheBurashka told me recently, "left on his own terms."
This was a real, genuine human being:
He won't be forgotten.