SANTA CLARA, Cuba (AFP) – A convoy carrying the ashes of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro resumed an islandwide tour yesterday after spending a symbolic night at the mausoleum of his comrade-in-arms Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

A jeep pulling a cedar urn holding the ashes entered the monument to Guevara in the city of Santa Clara after midnight, hours after it left Havana on a four-day trip across Cuba.

Crowds lined up for a second day on the roads to bid farewell to Castro, who died last Friday at age 90. He ruled the Caribbean island from 1959 until illness forced him to hand power to his brother, Raul, in 2006.

Two days of massive tributes were held at Havana’s Revolution Square this week before the communist leader’s remains were taken on the road to be laid to rest in the south-eastern city of Santiago de Cuba on Sunday.

The “caravan of freedom” is taking the reverse route of the victory tour that Castro took to celebrate his victory over dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

The first stop in the journey was at Guevara’s memorial in Santa Clara. The Argentine-born doctor won a crucial battle against Batista’s forces in this city in 1958.

Guevara was given high-ranking positions in the Government but he left in 1966 to lead a guerrilla expedition in Bolivia, where he was captured and executed a year later.

His remains were recovered three decades later and taken to Santa Clara, now home to a huge statue of “Che” and a museum dedicated to the revolutionary icon.