mage: Prensa Latina.

Havana, January 4 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel decreed Official Mourning in Cuba for the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on December 31.

The Official Mourning will begin from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight on Thursday, January 5, according to the Official Gazette of the Republic, which published Presidential Decree 552/2023 in its Extraordinary Edition Number 1 of this year.

During the period of the Official Mourning, the Cuban flag will be hoisted at half-mast in public buildings and military institutions.

Benedict XVI expressed his affectionate feelings towards the Cubans and spoke out against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba, pointing out that the efforts to build a society of broad horizons, renewed and reconciled, are affected when the economic measures imposed from outside the country weigh negatively on the population, according to the presidential decree.

Cuba received Benedict XVI during his pastoral visit in 2012.