Fidel Castro is to embark on his final journey, when the ashes of the late Cuban revolutionary leader will be transported 900 kilometres from the capital Havana to Santiago de Cuba.
Castro's ashes are to be buried in a funeral on Sunday in Santiago before an international cast of dignitaries including presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, all leftist allies of Cuba, as well as other Latin American leaders and Spain's former king Juan Carlos.
The US said it would not send an official delegation but that its acting ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis and national security advisor Ben Rhodes would attend.
Santiago in eastern Cuba is known as the cradle of Cuban Communism and the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power.
Hundreds of thousands of people had the opportunity to pay their respects to the late Castro on Havana's central Revolution Square. Cuba's historic leader died on Friday in Havana, aged 90, and was cremated in accordance with his own wishes. His ashes are to pass through several towns en route to Santiago.
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