Cubans have been marking the 89th birthday of former president Fidel Castro, as the US prepares to officially open its embassy in the capital. <br /><br /> At one birthday concert in the capital Havana, the crowd chanted “long live Fidel.”<br /><br /> The bearded leader, who was a constant presence and transfixed Cubans for decades with his fiery rhetoric, still holds a special place in the hearts and mind of the Caribbean island’s 11 million residents. <br /><br /> Fidel even has a special photo exhibition dedicated to him at the Jose Marti memorial in Havana.<br /><br /> He has used his birthday to repeat assertions that the US owes socialist Cuba “numerous millions of dollars” for damages caused by a decades-long embargo. <br /><br /> US Secretary of State John Kerry is due in the capital, to raise the American flag at its embassy – marking the restoration of diplomatic relations after years of hostility.<br /><br /> Washington severed diplomatic ties with Castro’s government in 1961, three months before the failed Bay of Pigs invasion by US
