ROME -- Pope Francis said that the death of the iconic Cuban revolutionary and long-standing former president of this central-American island is “sad news,” in a telegram to Raul Castro, who announced his brother’s death to the Cuban people on national television.  

 “On receiving the sad news about the disappearance of your dear brother, the esteemed Mr Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, ex-president of the Council of State and of the government of the Cuban Republic, I express my sentiments of grief to your excellence and to the other relatives of the deceased dignitary, just as to the government and the people of this loved nation,” said the Argentine pontiff in a telegram to the brother of the deceased, and current Cuban president Raul Castro.

 The US President Barack Obama issued a statement from the White House saying that “we reach out our hands in friendship to the Cuban people. History will judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and the world around him.”

 Whereas the US President Elect Donald Trump said, “today the world marks the disappearance of a brutal dictator who oppressed his people for almost six decades. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, I hope that today will mark its detachment from the horrors supported for too long, and towards a future in which the magnificent Cuban people will finally be able to live in the freedom that they deserve.”

 Raul Castro announced his brother’s death just after midnight in Cuba Nov. 25, saying, “Dear Cuban people, it is with profound sorrow that I appear here to inform our people, friends of Our America and of the world, that today Nov 25, 2016, at 10.29 p.m., the commander-in-chief of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz passed away.”

 nkd