SANTA CLARA, Cuba: Tens of thousands of Cubans turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, on the 50th anniversary of his death.
An estimated 70,000 people thronged the streets outside a mausoleum in this town 300 kilometres east of the capital Havana, which houses the remains of Guevara and of some of his former comrades.
President Raul Castro, dressed in his general's uniform, was among those attending the ceremony in Santa Clara, which was the site of a Dec 1958 battle that finally sent Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.
Raul Castro fought alongside Guevara during the Cuban revolution led by his brother, Fidel Castro.
The 39-year-old Guevara was captured and executed by a CIA-trained unit of the Bolivian army on Oct 9, 1967.
This year's ceremony was the first in the absence of Fidel Castro, who died last year, and an excerpt from one of his speeches honouring Guevara was played for the crowd.
The anniversary comes amid the dying gasps of other Latin American guerrilla movements such as the FARC in Colombia, which last year reached a peace deal with the government and recently disarmed.
The 86-year-old Raul Castro took a back seat at Sunday's ceremony to Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is expected to replace him as president next year. -- AFP