Saluting monumental revolutionary Castro

I cannot lament the death of this monumental revolutionary without also saying “muchisimas gracias” to the Cubans for the gift that was Castro and the pride I and many feel in his courage in leading the Cuban people to stand up for the disadvantaged and for resisting imperial domination and the dictates of the powerful for more than half a century after the revolution asserted and protected the Cuban people’s right to self-determination.

Castro refused to allow his nation to bow under the severe economic pressure and hardship meted out against them by the inhumane trade blockade and embargo imposed on the Cuban people by the government of the US.

Even in the special economic period, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Castro’s leadership and that of his government never buckled, never faltered nor wavered, but combined with the strength and intelligence of the masses was able to “transform this special period into a new age of revolutionary splendour”, not only for the people of Cuba but also for the people of Angola, Namibia and South Africa, where the racist, apartheid regimes crumbled under the mastery and genius of Castro’s military leadership.

Recalling the inception of the Association of the Caribbean States, Cuba was a founding member.

During the visit of Castro to TT in the early 1990s, to inaugurate the ACS, I had the honour of hosting a luncheon for Castro and then prime minister ANR Robinson.

The purpose of the luncheon was to introduce the manufacturing and export business community of TT to Castro and to doing business with Cuba.

You may recall that prime minister Dr Eric Williams, prime minister Michael Manley of Jamaica and president Forbes Burnham of Guyana had led the rest of the world in breaking the political and economic isolation of Cuba imposed by the US and in establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba in the 1970s and giving that country the opportunity to trade and flourish.

We must remember some of the important history lessons of the Caribbean.

For example when, in 1804, Haiti, under the leadership of another indomitable Caribbean hero, Toussaint L’Ouverture, defeated the French army of Napoleon and had the audacity to abolish slavery and declare independence of the second republic in the Americas.

But there was a heavy price to pay.

The French government charged the Haitian government and people hundreds of millions of francs in “reparations” or compensation for the loss of “human property”, enslaved Africans in Haiti.

The US later invaded and occupied Haiti in the early 20th century and even removed democratically-elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest, in the 1990s because they were unhappy with his populist and socialist policies.

What Castro showed the Haitian, Caribbean, Latin American and African people and the peoples of the world was that a leader and a country could stand up for principle and, with the support of the masses, resist foreign domination.

Castro proved that, even against tremendous odds, powerful foreign opposition, invasion and assassination attempts, a small-island developing State, grounded among the people and lifted up by socialist principles of “from each according to their ability and to each according to their needs”, could excel in education, health (with a higher life expectancy than the US or Canada), sports and culture and lead the Caribbean with exports in these areas.

Comandante Fidel Castro and the government and people of Cuba, I salute you.

I thank you and I assure you that I will never forget you and your intrepid, internationalist example.

GERALD HADEED via email