like everyone else. after a near fatal illness in 2008, castro turned the reins of power over to his younger brother raul and as cuba s new president began taking tentative steps toward reform, the u.s. began to ease restrictions. fidel castro was suspicious writing in january 2015 that although he doesn t trust u.s. policies and had not exchanged a word with them, this does not mean i would oppose a peaceful solution to conflicts or threats of war. in september last year, fidel met with pope francis, they talked about common problems of humanity that the pope condemned what he called cuba s authoritarian and corrupt regime. in march this year, american president barack obama visited cuba seven months after the two countries re-established diplomatic relations. he met with raul castro, but not fidel. at his 90th birthday party in
now. even havana was the place where the colombia rebels, the farc rebels and the government there came together to negotiate the end of that 52-year war. so they ve played quite important roles, havana in recent times. of course, if you go back to the cuban missile crisis, back to the bay of pigs, all these exceptionally difficult and dangerous confrontations, dween this communist island and the united states just 90 miles away. cuba, obviously, wants to see a lifting of the embargo despite diplomatic relations, that won t happen without an act of u.s. congress. many people have been reporting on cuba say with the death of fidel, the death of the oath ideologue of this movement, the own of the revolutionary era, with his death, it may make it much quicker and faster to institute reform. even in march when president
castro and his men drove down the central highway into havana in a very jubilant victory parade. a few days after taking over, castro held a speech, his first public speech. and it was just people as far as the eye could see. i guess i was watching it on tv, i do remember that. castro was giving a speech. in the middle of the speech, this white dove comes and lands on his shoulder. i remember as a young child, i was six years old thinking wow, this is really strange. that sort of stuff doesn t happen. i was very excited. everybody was excited and hopeful. fidel was a mythic larger than life figure who had done the impossible. he had overthrown a dictatorship that had a large army, all the
was returned to cuba. now, in his early 20s, gonzalez has become a castro supporter. he said this about the leader s death. translator: he is a father. who like my father, i wanted to show him everything i achieved. that he would be proud of me. that s how it was with fidel. if i learned something and wanted to show him and there are still many things i want to show him. just as joel ross pointed out a moment ago, fidel castro made many enemies over his time and power. he became a birth adversary and survived many assassination attempts, outliving many opponents. our rafael romo has this look at our leader s final years. castro knew his days were dwindling telling cuban communists that soon i will be
of war. in september last year, fidel met with pope francis, they talked about common problems of humanity that the pope once condemned calling the authoritarian and corrupt reg e regime. in march this year, american president barack obama visited the country after the he met with raul castro but not fidel. at his 90th birthday party in august this year, a frail fidel castro appeared at a theater named for karl marx and shown in occasional photos with foreign leaders. fidel castro came to power as a revolutionary inspired by marx. as he died, he was watching his revolution change in a way that was beyond his control. rafael romo, cnn. rafael, thank you. government forces in syria are closing in an east aleppo after entering a key part of that