When CIA Tries to Assassinate You 638 Times but You Pass Away on Your Own Terms in 90 Years Old

Leader of the Cuban Revolution and former Cuban president, Fidel Castro, who survived 638 assassination attempts, passed away aged 90 years old.

Fidel Castro holds up a newspaper headlining the discovery of a plot to kill him, during a visit to New York in April 1959 (Photo: Corbis / Bettmann)

Leader of the Cuban Revolution and former Cuban president, Fidel Castro, died on 91st year of his life, chairman of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, brother of the deceased, Raul Castro said on Cuban state television.

“With profound sadness I am appearing to inform our people and our friends across [Latin] America and the world that today, 25 November 2016, at 10.29pm, Fidel Castro, the commander in chief of the Cuban revolution, died,” Raul Castro said.

He also added that in accordance with the wishes of the deceased, “his remains will be cremated.”

Raul Castro concluded his address with the famous revolutionary slogan: “Onwards to victory!”

Información de Raúl Castro sobre el fallecimiento del líder de la Revolución Cubana #FidelCastro #Cuba pic.twitter.com/vSwWY3gdiH

— CubanitoenCuba (@CubanitoenCuba) 26 ноября 2016 г.

On Saturday, the Cuban government announced that Fidel Castro’s ashes will be interred at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba on December 4. The public viewing for Fidel Castro will begin on November 28 near the Jose Marti Memorial in Havana. On November 29, a demonstration will take place at the Revolution Square in the Cuban capital. Reportedly, the next day after the demonstration, transportation of Fidel Castro’s ashes will be begun in Santiago de Cuba on a route, retracing the path of rebels, led by Fidel Castro in January 1959, after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s regime.

The government decreed nine days of mourning – from November 26 to December 4, “public activities and shows will cease, the national flag will fly at half mast on public buildings and military installations.”

A number of leaders of countries of all over the world, politicians and diplomats have already expressed their condolences to Cuban people.

“The name of this distinguished statesman is rightly considered the symbol of an era in modern world history,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a telegram to Raul Castro.

French President Francois Hollande said that Fidel Castro “represented, for Cubans, pride in rejecting external domination.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the main ally of Cuba in the region, wrote on his Twitter: “It is up to us to continue his legacy and carry his flag of independence.”

Chinese president Xi Jinping said that “Chinese people have lost a good and true comrade. Comrade Castro will live forever.” He also added that Castro was “a great man of our time” and that “history and people will remember him.”

Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, who was among the last heads of state to visit Castro on November 16, said that “for all Vietnamese, Fidel was a great friend, a comrade and a very close brother”. He also added that he was “a pure symbol of true internationalism in the fight for independence of nations.”

Fidel Castro was born in the village of Biran in a family of an owner of a large sugar plantation in the Cuban province of Oriente. In 1945 he entered the University of Havana, received a law degree. In 1953 Fidel Castro led the assault on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was arrested and sentenced to a long prison term. In December 1956, Fidel Castro, his brother Raul and Argentine doctor Ernesto Che Guevara led the revolutionary movement against Batista in the island. After the victory of the revolution in January 1959, Fidel Castro became Prime Minister of Cuba. In 1965, he became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and transformed Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. From 1976 to 2008, he held positions of chairman of the State Council and the Council of Ministers of Cuba, as well as a position of the Supreme Commander. On February 19, 2008, 5 days prior to the expiration of the term of office, Fidel Castro announced that he refused from a new term in office. On April 19, 2011, Castro officially resigned as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba. All his powers passed to his brother, Raul Castro.

In December 2011, Fidel Castro was included in the Guinness Book of Records as a man, who survived the greatest number of assassination attempts – 638. In 167 cases, participants of conspiracies were arrested and brought to the trial; judicial cases of some of them were transferred to judicial authorities of other countries. Reportedly, the most part of assassination attempts was prepared by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the time, when Fidel Castro held office of the President of Cuba. From the famous exploding cigars to poison pills, hidden in a cold-cream jar, the CIA and Cuban exile groups spent nearly 50 years devising ways to kill Fidel Castro, however, they did not manage to do it.

“Soon, I will be turning 90 years old. I never imagined it and it has not been the fruit of any labor. It was purely a whim by destiny. Soon I will be like everybody else, everybody will get their turn, but ideas of the Cuban Communists will stay as proof that on this planet, if you work with diligence and dignity, you can produce material and cultural values, which people need, and we must to work hard to get them,” Fidel Castro said during one of his latest speeches in April 2016.

Fidel Castro speaks during the ceremony in which President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez was given the UNESCO Jose Marti award for his efforts in education February 3, 2006 in Havana, Cuba (Photo: Getty Images / Mambo Photography / Sven Creutzmann)

Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro (left) lights his cigar while Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967) looks on in the early days of their guerrilla campaign in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Cuba, circa 1956 (Photo: Getty Images / Hulton Archive)

This photo, filed June 1957, is believed to be the only existing one of Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba’s revolutionary forces, and members of his staff and troop commanders made at a secret base near the coast. The group includes five captains, the entire top command of the guerilla army. From right are Capt. Juan Almeida, Capt. George Sotus, Fidel Castro, Capt. Raul Castro, the leader’s younger brother (kneeling in the foreground), Capt. Guillermo Garcia, (wearing helmet at left), Lt. Universo Sanchez, Castro’s adjutant, (third from left) and Dr. Ernesto Guevara, (second from left), the official physician of the rebel army (Photo: Getty Images / Bettmann)

Screen capture from ‘Rebels of the Sierra Maestra’ television program, 1957 (Photo: Getty Images / Bettmann)

Fidel Castro speaks from a makeshift balcony draped with Cuban flags in Santa Clara en route to victorious entry into Havana (Photo: Getty Images / The Life Images Collection / Lee Lockwood)

In this April 19, 1959 file photo, Vice President Richard Nixon, right, shakes hands Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro after a private meeting as they leave Nixon’s office in Washington D.C. Castro has died at age 90. President Raul Castro said on state television that his older brother died late Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 (Photo: AP)

Fidel Castro looks up at a statue of emancipator Abraham Lincoln after laying a wreath at the Lincoln Memorial (Photo: Getty Images / Bettmann)

In this Sept. 26, 1960 file photo Cuban leader Fidel Castro denounces the United States in the longest timed speech ever in the U.N. General Assembly (Photo: AP)

Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro is seen as he delivers a speech during anniversary celebrations in Cuba, on July 26, 1964 (Photo: AP)

Havana. Cuba. 23rd June 1961. Cuban leader Fidel Castro and first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (L-R) during a meeting, 1961 (Photo: TASS / Valentin Sobolev)

Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro visit Georgia, 1963 (Photo: TASS / Vasily Yegorov)

Moscow region. USSR. General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev (L) and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel Castro (R) visit the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, 1972 (Photo: ITAR-TASS / Viktor Koshevoi and Vladimir Musaelyan)

Moscow. USSR. Boris Yeltsin, candidate to the Politburo, and Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, during a walk in Arbat Street, 1986 (Photo: TASS / Nikolai Malyshev; Alexander Sentsov)

Cuba. April 3, 1989. Visit of Mikhail Gorbachev to Cuba. General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and Fidel Castro during a meeting (Photo: TASS / Vladimir Zavyalov, Edward Pesov)

Cuban President Fidel Castro, right, and African leader Nelson Mandela gesture during the celebration of the “Day of the Revolution” in Matanzas Saturday, July 27, 1991 (Photo: AP)

Fidel Castro welcomes Russian president Vladimir Putin at Havana airport in December 2000 (Photo: EPA / Sergei Chirikov)

Pope Francis meets Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015 (Photo: AP / Alex Castro)

Patriarch Kirill visits Fidel Castro at his home, Cuba 2016 (Photo: Press-service of the Patriarchate of the ROC / TASS)

France´s President Francois Hollande meets Fidel Castro in Havana, 2015 (Photo: Getty Images / AFP/ Alex Castro)

Chinese president Xi Jinping meets Fidel Castro in Havana in July 2014 (Photo: AP/ Alex Castro)

Fidel Castro with Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in Havana in August 2016 (Photo: Getty Images / Ismael Francisco)

Vietnamese president Tran Dai Quang was one of the last world leaders to meet Fiden Castro, on 15 November (Photo: AP / Alex Castro)

A poster of Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro is seen on a wall in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 (Photo: AP / Desmond Boylan)