"The adversary we must defeat is extremely strong, but we have kept him at bay for half a century. I do not bid you farewell. My only wish is to fight as a soldier of ideas.." (Fidel Castro's 'message' of resignation to the Cuban people as president and commander-in-chief, February 19, 2008)

Whatever his enemies and detractors have to say about him, Fidel Castro remains, at 81, a most enduring political colossus to have emerged on the world stage by staging Cuba's memorable 20th century revolution.

RICKY SINGH

As the longest-serving head of state, his leadership has contributed to giving a significant new meaning and influence to what the 'Caribbean' came to mean as one of the two countries in this hemisphere (the other being Haiti) to have successfully launched an historic revolution.

Castro's almost 50 years in power in a revolutionary environment amid dramatic global political and economic changes, has sustained 35 years of relations with the Caribbean Community that have proven quite rewarding, generally, for its member countries and especially in the health and education sectors.

Significantly, these two sectors have been the twin pillars of international recognition of the successes of the Cuban revolution, as documented by the United Nations. They are unique achievements for a small developing nation on any continent of the globe.

The achievements of Castro's government helped, even during what once came to be known as the "special period" of challenging living conditions for Cubans, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its former major provider of economic and military aid.

Successes in surviving the successive administrations of 10 US presidents, from General Dwight Eisenhower to that of the current George Bush's - as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union itself, and the catalogued attempts by the CIA to assassinate Castro, including while on missions abroad, have variously contributed to the creation of a distinct Cuban profile.

It is one deeply admired across nations of this hemisphere, in Africa and Asia for the practical meaning to 'Third World solidarity", or "South/South co-operation", that Cuba extended, even to the shedding of Cuban blood in the cause of African liberation from colonialism and the heinous crime of apartheid.

Ask the international icon, Nelson Mandela, who lost no time as the first black president of South Africa in showing up in Cuba to personally thank Castro for his country's "tremendous sacrificial support" to the people of his homeland and other nations of Africa.
Fidel Castro himself had noted, in speaking of the evils of colonialism, how African blood flows in Cuban veins and, consequently, revolutionary Cuba was simply paying a debt to Africa in enabling its wars of liberation.

In the specific case of Cuba's involvement in Angola's war of independence, both Barbados and Guyana had reportedly played separate brief strategic roles in facilitating the refuelling of Cuban aircraft bound for Africa with Cuban military personnel and arms for the Angolan freedom fighters.

In the Caribbean, meanwhile, Cuba's health, education and cultural assistance continued to flow, over the years, as part of its trade and aid packages to Caricom. Castro has never missed an opportunity to express gratitude to Caricom for the courage demonstrated, as a group of relatively small nations, in helping to bring his country out of a hostile diplomatic isolation to which the USA had figured, back in 1962, it would have it permanently frozen, following its forced withdrawal from the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Today, all member states of Caricom, as well as others in the Greater Caribbean, have diplomatic relations and various forms of trade, cultural and functional cooperation with Cuba.

In contrast, it is the USA that stands isolated among hemispheric nations by a consistent breaking by states of the unprecedented trade, economic and financial embargo imposed against Cuba - 46 years ago.

The emergence of Castro's Cuba from isolation started in December 1972 when four Caricom governments - Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago - chose to boldly exercise their understanding of political sovereignty and the right to self-determination by jointly establishing diplomatic relations with the administration in Havana.

It was a unique development for a quartet of small states with vulnerable economies in defiance of the power of the world's greatest military/industrial complex at the height of the prevailing cold war and with Mexico then being the sole OAS member to establish diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Castro was to host in December 2002, a special summit in Havana of Caricom heads of government to mark the 30th anniversary of the historic solidarity with Cuba.

A Cuba-Caricom Summit now takes place once every three years for dialogue on "strategies for Caribbean human development and other issues of regional importance" with December 8 annually recognised as a day of solidarity with the Cuban government and people.

The second such summit took place in Barbados in December 2005 and the third is scheduled for Cuba in December this year when the principal host may well be Castro's 76-year-old brother, Raul Castro, who is expected to be elected as the new president and commander-in-chief today by the executive Council of State, following last month's parliamentary elections.

Castro's friendship policy towards Caricom was temporarily rocked in October 1983 with the US military invasion of Grenada that coincided with the self-destruction of the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) that ended with the execution of its Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and others.

Prior to that invasion, in which a number of Cuban workers engaged in construction of a new Grenada airport, the administration of then President Ronald Reagan had succeeded in a strategy of dividing Caricom governments with allegations of a Havana-Moscow axis to destabilise the region as part of a plan to spread communism in the Western Hemisphere.

But the consequences and bitterness of the collapse of the PRG and US military invasion of Grenada were to be methodically overcome with the leadership provided by Castro to heal wounds and confirm, with practical national and regional programmes, Cuba's commitment to fostering genuine friendship and cooperation based on mutual respect in the face of divergent political, economic and judicial systems.

For the USA, the lecturing to Cubans continues about the need for "restoration of democratic values". In the face, that is, of other nations trying to comprehend the meaning and purpose of US-approved "democratisation" and "human rights", even as it keeps shifting the goal post on civil liberties at home and abroad, particularly since the horrendous tragedies of 9/11 and America's war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Not surprisingly, therefore, as Fidel Castro told his "compatriots in struggle" in his historic "message" last week: "The path will always be difficult and will require the intelligent strength of all of us. Always prepare for the worst scenario. To be 'as prudent in success as you stand firm in adversity' is a principle that must not be forgotten. The adversary we must defeat (read USA in its misuse of power) is extremely strong, but we have kept him at bay for half a century."

And with that message Fidel Castro, the great titan of Cuba's revolutionary history, whose fame and, for some, notoriety, are known worldwide, has made way, peacefully, for his successor, with transparency and at a time of his own choosing.

He has, however, pledged to remain, off stage, to "fight as a soldier of ideas" for as long as humanly possible for one coping with a chronic intestinal ailment that had led to his provisional resignation as president in August 2006 and transfer of power to his brother Raoul.

The fear factor

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS