The death of Fidel Castro prompted both sorrow and celebration around the world yesterday as sympathisers mourned his passing, while critics applauded his demise.
Castro died of natural causes in Cuba last Friday night at the age of 90.
And depending on where you stand, Castro can either be viewed as a renowned revolutionary or a deadly dictator.
Castro’s brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, announced his death in a televised statement.
“I say to the people of Cuba, with profound pain I come here to inform our people, our friends of America and the world, that today, 25 November, 2016, at 10.29 pm, died the chief commander of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz,” Castro (R) said.
Castro served as Cuba’s president for 42 years before being succeeded by his younger brother.
In 1959 Castro led the Cuban Revolution against the government of Fulgencio Batista, which triggered a bitter stand-off between the United States and Cuba that resulted in the US imposing a trade embargo on Cuba.
For decades Castro defied the US and is also said to have survived numerous assassination attempts. Castro’s supporters believe he gave Cuba back to the people while his critics view him as a dictator.
Castro last visited this country in 1995 when he attended a conference of the Association of Caribbean States, which was held at the Hilton Hotel.
Patrick Manning, who died on July 2, was prime minister when Castro came here.
Castro’s visit started on August 17 and lasted three days.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian yesterday, former prime minister Basdeo Panday, who met Castro on several occasions described him as “probably the greatest revolutionary of the 20th century.
“I have met him on a few occasions and I have always found him to be charming, intelligent, courteous and brilliant. I think he was probably the greatest revolutionary of the 20th century. He was courageous, he believed in what he wanted to do and he had the courage to do it, and few men are like that in the world,” Panday said.
“I have always regarded Cuba as a member of the Caribbean family and so has he, but the superpowers divided the Caribbean away from Cuba and I am very happy that he lived to see an end to that kind of division and that Cuba is once more part of the Caribbean,” Panday said.
In 2014 US President Barack Obama announced that Cuba and the US would restore diplomatic relations.
While some hailed Castro as a hero, Miami’s Cuban exiles took to the streets yesterday to celebrate his death.
Photographs and videos of people who fled Cuba to escape Castro’s rule showing them banging pots and pans and waving the Cuban flag were broadcast yesterday.
‘Fidel was a dictator, freedom fighter’
Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Lovell Francis, who was a history lecturer at the University of the West Indies before he entered politics, said, “As a person who taught history, Caribbean history and Latin American history, I understand the significance of the life of Fidel Castro. If you ask me whether I would have liked to live in Cuba during his tenure, probably not. But from an academic sense, if you ask me if he was an important historical figure, an important quote, unquote freedom fighter I would have to say yes.
“People forget that the Cuba that Fidel Castro grew up in was an American colony, with all of the negative connotations of being a colony, meaning that your property is owned by elsewhere, your economy was run from elsewhere and Fidel Castro was a young lawyer who was basically trying to fight for the rights of the citizenry of his island against an imperialist American power that was not concerned with listening to him,” he said.
Francis said Castro fought for freedom and this had “dire consequences,” but that does not “totally undermine his stature as one of the most important 20th century figures of the world.”
“As a person who fought for freedom, whether you want to balance that against the fact that he was a dictator, how you view that depends on you, but it does not take away from the fact that he was a freedom fighter, he fought for the freedom of his people against an imperialist, colonialist power and how you view him has to do with your political view but for me despite that fact that he might be a dictator I still view him as a Caribbean leader,” Francis said.
Castro’s funeral is carded for next Sunday.