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Cuba declares Castro birthplace national monument

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-04 13:46

HAVANA -- Cuba has made the rural homestead where Fidel and Raul Castro were born a national monument, state media reported Tuesday.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is seen in Havana in this picture taken January 21, 2009 and released January 23, 2009. Castro, 82, has been seen only in occasional videos and photos since he underwent surgery in July 2006 for an undisclosed intestinal ailment that later forced him to cede power to his younger brother, Raul Castro.[Agencies]

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Fidel Castro has written of his happy childhood memories in the countryside but has shown little attachment to the 32,100-acre (13,000-hectare) property in eastern Holguin province that once belonged to his father. It was the first farm expropriated after he took power in 1959 and collectivized agriculture.

The graves of Angel Castro and Lina Ruiz ,Fidel and Raul's parents,are located on the grounds near the village of Biran.

The property once featured a cockfighting ring, movie theater and a saloon where Raul briefly tended bar. The original complex of red-roofed houses was destroyed in a fire, but has been rebuilt.

Freya Matos, a specialist with the National Monuments Commission, told the official AIN news agency that 80 acres (32 hectares) of the site, including 11 buildings, would formally be declared a national monument in a ceremony on Thursday.

Matos did not say why the commission decided to bestow historical status on the homestead now, especially since it has been a museum for years.

Cuban state media called it "a symbolic site of our contemporary history."

Cuba has 11 other national monuments, including historic sugar mills, universities and museums.

Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926. Raul came along five years later. The younger Castro succeeded his ailing, 82-year-old brother as president nearly a year ago.