The list of western leaders not attending the Cuban leaders send-off is seeming more notable than those who will. But his is not the only ceremony to spark dispute
Obama and Theresa May have swerved it. Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson will be no-shows and Jeremy Corbyn is sending Emily Thornberry. All in all, the listing of western leaders who wont be attending Fidel Castros funeral is seeming more notable than those who will.
As with the tributes that poured in after the death of one of the worlds longest serving leaders, legislators across the world are divided between praising Castro for his revolutionary fervor and excoriating his human rights record. Franois Hollande is sending Sgolne Royal, but Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras will be there, as will Gerry Adams, South African President Jacob Zuma and Venezuelan president Nicols Maduro. Putin, is apparently busy working on his end-of-year statement for Russian lawmakers the diplomatic equivalent of cleaning his hair. But Castro is far from the only world statesman to have a tricky guest list at his funeral
Hugo Chvez
The Cuban leaders most ardent advocate had a funeral that was no less controversial. Despite often railing against the US, Obama chose to send a delegation while actor Sean Penn and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson attended in a private capability. Irans former leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the prize for most enthusiastic attendee landing himself in hot water with conservative clerics in the Islamic Republic for his overly effusive eulogy in which he indicated Chavez would return alongside Jesus Christ on resurrection day, and for being pictured clasping the hands of Chvezs mourning mother.
Shimon Peres
World leaders heaped praise on the three-time Israeli leader ahead of his funeral last year, with two American chairpeople Obama and Bill Clinton as well as Prince Charles and leaders of France, Mexico, Germany and Canada, among the attendees. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, Arab states were less keen on attending.
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, despite being a close Israeli ally, did not attend nor did Peres friend, Jordans King Abdullah. Moroccos king, Mohammed VI, sent his personal adviser Andr Azulai, who the hell Jewish. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan also gave it a miss, offering a deputy foreign minister to represent Turkey at the funeral. Perhaps most astonishingly, the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas attended shaking hands with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and triggering fury among some politicians.
Josip Broz Tito
He may have been called a benevolent dictator but Tito, who ruled Communist-era Yugoslavia for 35 years, had no problem get world leaders to his send-off. Four monarches, 31 chairwomen, six princes, 22 prime ministers and 47 ministers of foreign affairs from countries on both sides of the cold war came along. One hundred and twenty-eight countries sent political delegations to the funeral in 1980; James Callaghan, Yasser Arafat, Colonel Gaddafi, the Duke of Edinburgh, Nicolae Ceauescu, Erich Honecker were all there. In fact, controversially, only five countries stayed away including Pinochets Chile and apartheid-era South Africa.
Ferdinand Marcos
For controversial funerals in 2016, however, it will be hard to beat the Philippines despot. Although he died back in 1993, Marcos has been kept in a refrigerated crypt, until this month, when he was finally buried.
Marcos ruled from 1965 until 1986, when he was overthrown by a popular insurrection, and his martial law, from 1972 to 1981, is said to have caused the deaths of 3,240 people, imprisonment of 70,000 and torture of 34,000, according to Amnesty International.
Yet despite public outrage, the supreme court ruled the former leader could be interred in a heroes cemetery and this month he was secretly interred with a 21 -gun salute. Now campaigners have launched legal action to exhume his body.
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