democracy. we are not betting on building a dictatorship neither overt nor covert. changes will be profound. but they will adhere to the legal order that is established. and all this taking place at the epicenter of obrador s support, zocalo square. that s where our patrick op. mann filed his report. reporter: mexicans are celebrating what many called a revolution for this country. you see people pouring into the square behind me to celebrate an event they never thought would take place. the election of leftist populist candidate andres manuel lopez obrador. he s been running for president now for over a decade. this is his third attempt at the office. previous attempts he said kept him from gaining office because of corruption. right now, though, he has more than defeated the opposition. that s because more of mexican
patrick, i want to ask you in your opinion i want to tap in to your knowledge about cubans and cuba. is the grip of raul castro on the cuban government fragile? is it vulnerable? no, it does not appear to be. an example, you mentioned where you had raul castro taking a different path in engaging with the united states than his brother and fidel castro criticized him, krit sided the policy openly but that didn t change the engagement. raul castro has had ten years to consolidate his power. he has all of the titles his brother had. he is in charge of the military, president of cuba and also 85 years old. he s now more than ever perhaps aware of his mortality. raul castro said previously he would step down in february of 2018. we will see if that changes.
is one of those moments that you remember. a history to himself. whatever you think of the man he represents a half century if not more of history. it s cuba and the u.s., the rest of the world. influence over latin american leaders. we will break down this here on cnn. we will look at his influence and legacy. patrick has been talking about that a lot. patrick, you are standing by and will be with us for the foreseeable hours. for now look at the role of the army. it has had a big role since he came in to power. here s the package that patrick put together. reporter: from the moment they rolled in to havana that new year s day 1959, ragged, bearded and unwashed they were bent on a radical break from the past. today more than 50 years later, cuba s armed forces remain the
brother fidel. he said dear people of cuba with profound pain i have to inform you and our friends of america and to the world that november 25th, 2016 at 10:29 in the evening the commander and leader 0 the cuban revolution fidel castro died following explicit desires of leader fidel his remains will be cremated in the early hours of tomorrow, saturday 26th of november. the organizing commissioner of the funerals will give detailed information about the organization of the. patrick is live with us this hour. we have elise labott as we hear word on the passing of this former leader. we are touching base with writers, columnist, people in miami to get reaction.
november 26th. that is new information from the present leader of cuba. looks like cuban authorities, patrick, ready move quickly on this. oh, absolutely. they have had many occasions over the years. even when fidel castro fell ill, he was on death s door. he said he did not expect to survive this long. it was not his wish. some of his last appearances he said he did not expect to live much longer but he had an appearance where he met the president of vietnam. in recent months you would see world leaders come and visit. heavily guarded area. recently we saw leaders coming to meet and talk to him. he couldn t stand at that point. he was fairly clear. he would engage in lengthy