On Friday, dissident punk rocker and artist Gorki Aguila was supposed to board a flight to Mexico, but State Security agents arrested him when he arrived at the airport and his whereabouts are currently unknown. According to reports, Aguila was accosted by agents and told he could not leave the island because he was "regulated,"
The official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba,
Granma, celebrated the opening of the regular Party Congress on Friday with an article boasting, “Fidel is more alive than ever, Raúl is still leading us.”
The Communist Party confirmed that Fidel Castro, the longtime communist dictator of the island, died in November 2016. Raúl Castro, his brother and longtime executioner, took over the country at the time. In communist regimes, the government rarely acknowledges the leaders’ deaths. North Korean founder Kim Il-sung remains the nation’s “eternal president” despite dying in 1994; Hugo Chávez has kept his title of “eternal commander” since his death in 2013.