U.S. reaffirms its support for deepening engagement with Cuba

The United States has extended condolences to the Cuban people, where certain factions are mourning the death of revolutionary leader and former president Fidel Castro, who died yesterday at the age of 90.

The United States reaffirmed its support for deepening their engagement with the Cuban people now and in coming years.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement issued," As our two countries continue to move forward on the process of normalization restoring the economic, diplomatic and cultural ties severed by a troubled past, we do so in a spirit of friendship and with an earnest desire not to ignore history but to write a new and better future for our two peoples."

The news of Fidel's death was announced by Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother more than eight years earlier, Cuban state media reports.

In 1959, Castro along with a small band of revolutionaries overthrew an unpopular dictator Fulgencio Batista and rode their jeeps and tanks into Cuba's capital Havana.

Cubans believed in Castro's promise of democracy and an end to repression as they were fed up with the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

An intestinal illness that required several surgeries forced Castro, who had been in power for 47 years, to hand over his duties temporarily to younger brother Raul in July 2006.

Raul took over permanently as the President after Fidel's resignation in February 2008.