Fidel Castro’s oldest son, Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, died today in Havana at the age of 69, apparently from suicide, Cuban television reported.
Castro Díaz-Balart, the only son from Fidel Castro’s marriage to Mirtha Díaz-Balart and known as “Fidelito,” had been suffering from a “profound depression” for several months, according to the same source.
He had been seeing a group of doctors for several months and as part of his treatment he initially required hospitalization and later had an out-patient follow up during his social reincorporation, the Cuban press reported.
On his mother’s side he was a direct relative of a family of renowned U.S. politicians and first cousin of Senator Mario Díaz-Balart, who represented the interests of radical exile groups in Florida against the Cuban Revolution.
Fidel Castro’s firstborn, a nuclear physicist, was scientific advisor to the Council of State and vice president of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. He studied in the former Soviet Union and graduated as a doctor in physics. He always preferred to stay far away from political questions, although he held important posts in the Cuban Atomic Power Commission from where he defended the peaceful use of this resource.
EFE / AP / OnCuba
