A motorcade containing Almeida's remains will depart the military airport in the eastern city of Santiago, 860 kilometers southeast of Havana, on Tuesday, the state-run Granma newspaper reported. It said thousands are expected to turn out to witness the somber procession. "> A motorcade containing Almeida's remains will depart the military airport in the eastern city of Santiago, 860 kilometers southeast of Havana, on Tuesday, the state-run Granma newspaper reported. It said thousands are expected to turn out to witness the somber procession. ">

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Thousands of Cubans will take to the streets to honour late Vice President Juan Almeida when he is buried in the mountains where he fought alongside Fidel Castro in the 1950s revolution, state media reports.

Almeida, the communist government's number three, who died on Friday of cardiac arrest at age 82, will be accorded a military burial on Tuesday in the mausoleum of the historic 3rd Eastern Front of the rebel army.

The site is located near the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, considered the cradle of the revolution that brought Castro to power.

State newspaper Granma said Santiago residents will join a "multi-faceted tribute" to Almeida, whose funeral procession will begin early morning at the local airport and wind past city hall, where Fidel Castro announced the victory against the government of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

When revolutionary leaders came to power in 1959, Almeida was promoted to general of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces and later became a member of the central committee and political bureau of the Cuban Communist Party.

The island nation issued an official newspaper issue on Sunday mourning Almeida's death, while thousands of Cubans paid homage to the Afro-Cuban revolutionary, whose close ties to Castro were seen as a sign of blacks' access to power and influence in the communist-ruled country.

Source: AFP

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