People from across the world paid tribute to the legacy of Fidel on the first anniversary of his passing.
In Sri Lanka the National Cuba Solidarity Committee, Sri Lanka-Cuba Friendship Association and Association of Graduates from the island, organized a tribute to the revolutionary leader.
The event saw the participation of leaders from various political parties and members of parliament, all of whom emphasized the continued relevance of the Comandante’s political ideas, his principles of dignity, sovereignty and solidarity – including Dinesh Gunawardena, a member of Sri Lanka’s Parliament, former minister, President of the Friendship Association, leader of the People’s United Front Party and president of the Unity Alliance parliamentary group. Also attending the activity was Dew Gunasekara, secretary general of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, other expressions of solidarity paying homage to the legacy of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution arrived from across the region, as graduates from the island’s Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in addition to Cuba solidarity groups recalled the eternal Comandante.
In Chile for example, as well as paying tribute to Fidel, professionals trained in Cuba and members of the country’s solidarity movement, presented the first installment of a donation for victims of Hurricane Irma.
Meanwhile, solidarity groups put up posters around the capital in honor of the Comandante, and a political-cultural gala was held, during which participants recalled the revolutionary legacies of Fidel, Camilo and Che, as well as the continued relevance of their ideas. Those present also took the opportunity to reaffirm their support for the Cuban Revolution.
Likewise, the Communist Party of Norway sent a message of solidarity to the Cuban people.
“Please accept our tribute to the great leader of the Cuban Revolution, on the first anniversary of his death,” read the letter which was delivered to the Cuban Embassy by Svend Jacobsen.
Meanwhile, economist and political analyst Peter Koenig, who worked at the World Bank for 30 years, sent a message to the Cuban Embassy in Geneva, in which he noted that “A year ago the great revolutionary, the visionary, Fidel Castro, died. He left as an earthly being, but will live on for eternity as a spiritual being, leaving his mark on this world, awakening the youth, generation after generation, little by little. We will never forget you Fidel!”
South African Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Saad Cachalia, also sent a message to his counterpart from the island in Riad. “We commemorate the death of the Comandante en Jefe, President Fidel Castro. Long live the immortal sprit of comrade Castro,” read the text.
Meanwhile, Samuel Wanitzsch, national coordinator of the Switzerland-Cuba Association, noted that Fidel’s words and actions and his firm upstanding position, always orientated toward peace, justice and the truth, is what motivated him and all friends of Cuba to work in solidarity with the island, and help preserve the gains of the Revolution and work to extend them across the world.
Speaking during the tribute to Fidel, he noted that, with his unique political genius, he exposed, in a single sentence, the hypocrisy and pretence of the so-called Western Community of Values: “You send arms, we send doctors.”
He recalled Fidel’s warning to the world of the danger of and silent advance toward nuclear war.
“That’s how Fidel exposed capitalism time and again. This did not please the powerful and almost all reacted with hate and imposed blockades, and sent their henchmen and lackeys.”
None of this however, he noted, could stop Fidel from realizing his life’s work, and in so doing, has become one of the greatest figures in modern human history.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Benin also issued a statement in honor of the first anniversary of the passing of the Comandante en Jefe.