Cuba to bury Castro, enter post-Fidel era

Cuba closes a major chapter in its history Sunday as it buries Fidel Castro and gazes at a future without the communist icon who defied Washington and ruled for decades.

Capping a week of tributes and mass rallies, Castro's ashes will be interred at the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, the eastern city where his revolution was launched more than a half-century ago.

President Raul Castro led a massive, final rally in his brother's honor at Santiago's Revolution Plaza late Saturday, leading the crowd into pledge to uphold the revolution.

"In front of Fidel's remains ... we swear to defend the fatherland and socialism," Raul Castro said.

"He demonstrated that, yes we could, yes we can, yes we will overcome any obstacle, threat, turbulence in our firm resolve to build socialism in Cuba," he said.

Castro, who died on November 25 at age 90, will be laid to rest during a "simple" ceremony near the mausoleum of 19th century independence hero Jose Marti, Castro said.

But the national assembly, which meets later this month, will pass a law to fulfill Castro's dying wish that no statues be erected in his memory or streets named after him, he said.

"The leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality," Raul Castro said.

While Castro was sidelined by emergency intestinal surgery a decade ago, he remained a towering figure in Cuba.

He was revered by supporters for the free health care and education he spread across the island, and vilified by dissidents who saw him as a brutal dictator.