Argentine footballer Diego Maradona: Fidel Castro second father

Argentina's soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona, center, stands on the stage after a rally honoring late Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Antonio Maceo plaza in Santiago, Cuba. Photo / AP

Fidel Castro's funeral procession reached its final destination drawing into Santiago de Cuba to be greeted by thousands of flag-waving Fidelistas.

Having set out from Havana, the military jeep towing the casket containing Castro's ashes, arrived in the city in the late afternoon.

Early today NZT he was laid to rest in Santiago's cemetery next to Jose Marti, Cuba's independence hero.

"Rebellious yesterday, heroic forever," read a sign the cortege passed on entering the city - Castro's words displayed as a mark of respect for the place that was the beating heart of his revolutionary war.

Thousands packed the Plaza Antonio Maceo to pay tribute - among them Luiz Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, former presidents of Brazil, and the presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Congo.

Diego Maradona, the Argentine footballer taken under Castro's wing to show off Cuba's healthcare system when he was battling drug addiction, described Castro as being his "second father".

"Since recovering from my illness, I replay his words of support in my head all the time," said Maradona before the ceremony. "The world has lost a true leader."

The footballer was a friend of Castro's since his first visit to the island in 1986. "He cared so much about Cubans. Sometimes we'd sit up talking about football until four or five in the morning, and the next day I'd be sleeping late - but he'd be up early working for the people."

Throughout the last week, those people were out in force, as the Cuban Government staged a show of unity and devotion in a final farewell to "El Comandante".

Streets across the country were paralysed as "the caravan of freedom" passed through, retracing the steps of Castro's victorious march from Santiago into Havana in 1959. Soldiers guarded the bridges overnight before the cortege passed.