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		</div><p>Schools and government offices in Cuba were closed for a second day as hundreds of thousands continued to pay tribute to Fidel Castro.</p>
<p>The day was set to end in a rally on the wide plaza where the late Cuban leader delivered fiery speeches to mammoth crowds in the years after he seized power.</p>
<p>Cubans have been bidding farewell to Castro, pledging allegiance to his socialist ideology and paying tribute before images of the leader as a young guerrilla gazing out over the country he would come to rule for nearly a half century.</p>
<p>On Tuesday they were joined by two of Castro&#8217;s firmest ideological allies, presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia, who spent several moments paying their respects before a picture of Castro as a young, bearded rebel.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Cuba is going through a moment of profound shock,&#8221;</i> Mr Morales said when he arrived the previous evening.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I came to be present during a moment of pain from the loss of my brother, my friend.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Cuban state media reported that an urn containing Castro&#8217;s ashes was being kept in a room at the Defence Ministry where his younger brother and successor, Raul Castro, and top Communist Party officials paid tribute the previous evening.</p>
<p>Lines stretched for hours outside Havana&#8217;s Plaza of the Revolution, the heart of government power.</p>
<p>In Havana and across the island, people signed condolence books and an oath of loyalty to Castro&#8217;s sweeping May 2000 proclamation of the Cuban revolution as an unending battle for socialism, nationalism and an outsize role for the island on the world stage.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I feel a deep sadness, but immense pride in having had him near,&#8221;</i> said Ana Beatriz Perez, a 50-year-old medical researcher who was advancing in the slow-moving line with the help of crutches.</p>
<p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sCubaMournsFidelCastroB29Nov16_large.jpg"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sCubaMournsFidelCastroB29Nov16_large.jpg" alt="scubamournsfidelcastrob29nov16_large" width="600" height="325" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-100325" /></a></p>
<p><i>&#8220;His physical departure gives us strength to continue advancing in his ideology. This isn&#8217;t going away, because we are millions.&#8221;</i></p>
<p><i>&#8220;His death is another revolution,&#8221; said her husband, Fidel Diaz, who predicted that it will prompt many to &#8220;rediscover the ideas of the commander for the new generations&#8221;.</i></p>
<p>Tribute sites were set up in hundreds of places across the island as the government urged Cubans to reaffirm their belief in a socialist, single-party system that in recent years has struggled to maintain the fervour that was widespread at the triumph of the 1959 revolution.</p>
<p>Many mourners came on their own accord, but thousands were sent in groups by the communist government, which still employs about 80% of the working people in Cuba despite the growth of the private sector under Raul.</p>
<p>Inside the memorial, thousands walked through three rooms with near-identical displays featuring the 1962 Alberto Korda photograph of the young Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains, bouquets of white flowers and an array of Castro&#8217;s medals against a black backdrop, framed by honour guards of soldiers and children in school uniforms.</p>
<p>The ashes of the 90-year-old former president did not appear to be on display.</p>
<p>Signs read: <i>&#8220;The Cuban Communist Party is the only legitimate heir of the legacy and authority of the commander in chief of the Cuban Revolution, comrade Fidel Castro.&#8221;</i></p>
<p><i>&#8220;Goodbye commander. Your ideas remain here with us,&#8221;</i> 64-year-old retiree Etelbina Perez said between sobs, dabbing at her eyes with a brown handkerchief.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I feel great pain over his death. I owe my entire life to him. He brought me out of the mountains. I was able to study thanks to him.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>The scene was played out on a smaller scale at countless places across the country.</p>
<p>After 10 years of leadership by Raul Castro, a relatively camera-shy and low-key successor, Cuba has found itself riveted once again by the words and images of the man who dominated the lives of generations.</p>
<p>Since his death on Friday night, state-run newspapers, television and radio have run wall-to-wall tributes to Fidel Castro, broadcasting non-stop footage of his speeches, interviews and foreign trips, interspersed with adulatory remembrances by prominent Cubans.</p>
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