President Barack Obama issued a statement saying that the United States is extending "a hand of friendship to the Cuban people" at the time of Fidel Castro's death, while president elect Donald Trump acknowledged the death of the Cuban leader with a short tweet.
Obama said in a statement that "history will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him."
Read @POTUS’s statement on the passing of Fidel Castro: https://t.co/ihVoLdqbRQ pic.twitter.com/sPZfvpeQVB— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 26, 2016
The U.S. president noted that "discord and profound political disagreements" marked the relationship between the United States and Cuba for nearly six decades, and says he has "worked hard to put the past behind us."
Obama said that in the coming days, Cubans "will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner" in America.
You can read the whole statement from the White House here.
President elect Donald Trump also acknowledged Fidel Castro's death. In a short burst, he said: "Fidel Castro is dead!"
Fidel Castro is dead!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2016
Trump issued a lengthier statement hours after Castro's death calling him a "brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades."
"Fidel Castro's legal is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights."
Listen to our special coverage of the aftermath of Fidel Castro's death here:
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