Foreign Affairs

Cuban Americans Cheer Castro’s Death On The Streets Of Miami [VIDEO]

Welcoming Fidel Castro Ruz at the Varna Airport in May 1972, WikiMedia Commons [Public domain]

Cuban Americans cheered Fidel Castro’s death on the streets of Miami Friday night, singing, waving flags and popping champagne corks in jubilant celebrations that lasted into the early morning hours.

News of the dictator’s death spread quickly in Little Havana, the center of the Cuban exile community, and crowds of joyful people quickly poured onto the streets, reports CNN. Some banged on pots, waved the Cuban flag and drank champagne in celebration of the death of the dictator who caused many of them to flee their homes and resettle in the United States.

Following the news of Fidel Castro's death, celebrations immediately broke out in Miami's Little Havana https://t.co/Sf44UiUJde pic.twitter.com/4rEhp5tTgA

— CNN (@CNN) November 26, 2016

Hundreds of people gathered in front of a popular restaurant for the exile community called Versailles, with some chanting, dancing and singing, while others captured the moments on their smartphones. Some shouted “libertad” or “freedom.”

The Cuban flag unfurled in Little Havana as exiles celebrate the end of Fidel Castro. pic.twitter.com/F5BMuXiYAX

— Chris Moody (@moody) November 26, 2016

“This is a celebration but in a way, not a celebration of a death but it’s a celebration hopefully of a beginning of liberty that we are all waiting for, for many years,” one of the crowd members told CNN. “The hope is that not just because Fidel died, but also hopefully it opens up the people in Cuba a little bit more to go against what’s happening there.”

The retired dictator died at the age of 90, Cuban state television reported Friday night. The communist revolutionary was a major figure of the Cold War who was a dominant political figure in the Cuba for nearly five decades. He turned over authority to his younger brother Raul Castro in 2008.

Follow Rachel on Twitter

Send tips to rachel@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.