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Tag: World Leaders

  • Sope praises Fidel Castro over Cuban backing for Vanuatu independence

    By Godwin Ligo in Port Vila
    Late President Fidel Castro ... a champion of Vanuatu independence. Image: Vanuatu Daily Post
    Late President Fidel Castro … a champion of Vanuatu independence. Image: Vanuatu Daily Post

    Former Vanuatu Prime Minister and the country’s first Roving Ambassador, Barak Sope, has expressed his personal tribute to the late Fidel Castro of Cuba who died late last week.

    Speaking from his home on Ifira in a telephone interview with the Daily Post, Barak Sope, who was one of the young political activists for Vanuatu independence during the New Hebrides colonial era, related how Cuba was the first country in the world to support political freedom from the two colonial powers, Britain and France.

    “In 1977, [founding prime minister] Father Walter Lini and I were present during a UN Committee of 24 on Decolonisation in New York.

    “This was the first time that the Vanuatu cry for political independence was heard by the UN Committee.

    “It was through the Cuban President Fidel Castro at the time that Cuba became the first country in the world to sponsor the then New Hebrides application to the UN 24 Committee in 1977.

    “So, Father Walter Lini, who was the president of the Vanua’aku Party, and I made a trip to New York to be present during the UN Committee of 24 on Decolonization to listen to the debate for our freedom,” Sope recalled.

    “It was timely too, because Cuba did not only sponsor Vanuatu’s application to the UN Committee, but it so happened that at the time Cuba chaired the committee, and so we knew with hope that our political freedom was eminent, with the Cuban Ambassador appointed by President Fidel Castro to chair the UN Committee,” he said.

    Two roles
    Sope said it was through the two roles that Cuba played at the time that the UN Committee of 24 on Decolonisation shepherded Vanuatu’s application through.

    Sope said other countries that supported the then New Hebrides in its initial stages for political freedom through the UN were Algeria and Tanzania.

    “After Independence in 1980, I was appointed by Vanuatu’s first Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, as Vanuatu’s first Roving Ambassador and Secretary for Foreign Affairs, because Foreign Affairs at the time was under the Prime Minister’s portfolio.

    “In August 1981, Prime Minister Father Walter Lini appointed me as a Special Envoy to travel to Havana, Cuba, to deliver Vanuatu’s Special Message of ‘thank you and appreciation’ to President Castro, and at the same time formalised diplomatic relations with Cuba that saw Vanuatu flag raised in Havana.

    “I could not travel through the US at the time, so I had to make a long trip via UK and Canada and then to Havana, Cuba where I was accorded a high level welcome personally by President Castro in his Presidential Palace.

    “I extended to him on behalf of the government and the people of Vanuatu, deep appreciation for the support that President Fidel Castro and his country paving the way from Havana to the corridors of the United Nations and finally to the Committee of 24 on Decolonisation that released our colonised country and people from Britain and France to become the independent state and the new Republic of Vanuatu,” Sope said.

    “Port Vila tied diplomatic relations with Havana in August 1981 before becoming a full member of the United Nations (UN) in September of 1981 – the same year, but we recognised Cuba first because without Cuba and President Fidel Castro, it may have taken longer or never for this country to become an independent state from Britain and France,” Sope recalled.

    Independent state
    “In 1977, Father Walter Lini and I attended the UN Decolonisation Committee in informal clothing but in 1981 we attended the UN General Assembly for the first time after independence where Father Walter Lini as the first Vanuatu Prime Minister addressed the UN General Assembly for the first time as an independent state and as the UN welcomed Vanuatu as its full member.

    fidel-castro
    A younger Fidel Castro …medical scholarships for Vanuatu. Image: Vanuatu Daily Post

    “Today, I am sad to say that Vanuatu has lost its first political pillar of our political freedom, the late President Fidel Castro.

    “Personally, and of course the country has lost a man that stood up for the right of the political freedom of our nation and people in international forum and the United Nations. We truly miss him,” Sope said.

    The former Cuban President Fidel Castro handed over his responsibilities in 2006 to his brother Raul.

    He died at the age of 90 last Friday.

    Relations with Cuba were enhanced further when the country provided scholarships for ni-Vanuatu to attend medical school to become doctors.

    Godwin Ligo is a senior journalist on the Vanuatu Daily Post. This article has been republished with permission.

  • Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies aged 90

    By Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta | HAVANA

    Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and for five decades defied U.S. efforts to topple him, died on Friday. He was 90.

    A towering figure of the second half of the 20th Century, Castro stuck to his ideology beyond the collapse of Soviet communism and remained widely respected in parts of the world that had struggled against colonial rule.

    He had been in poor health since an intestinal ailment nearly killed him in 2006. He formally ceded power to his younger brother Raul Castro two years later.

    Wearing a green military uniform, a somber Raul Castro, 85, appeared on state television on Friday night to announce his brother’s death.

    “At 10.29 at night, the chief commander of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, died,” he said, without giving a cause of death.

    “Ever onward, to victory,” he said, using the slogan of the Cuban revolution.

    Tributes came in from allies, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who said “revolutionaries of the world must follow his legacy.”

    Although Raul Castro always glorified his older brother, he has changed Cuba since taking over by introducing market-style economic reforms and agreeing with the United States in December 2014 to re-establish diplomatic ties and end decades of hostility.

    Fidel Castro offered only lukewarm support for the deal, raising questions about whether he approved of ending hostilities with his longtime enemy. Some analysts believed his mere presence kept Raul from moving further and faster, while others saw him as either quietly supportive or increasingly irrelevant.

    He did not meet Barack Obama when he visited Havana earlier this year, the first time a U.S. president had stepped foot on Cuban soil since 1928.

    Days later, Castro wrote a scathing newspaper column condemning Obama’s “honey-coated” words and reminding Cubans of the many U.S. efforts to overthrow and weaken the Communist government.

    The news of Castro’s death spread slowly among Friday night revelers on the streets of Havana. One famous club that was still open when word came in quickly closed.

    Some residents reacted with sadness to the news.

    “I’m very upset. Whatever you want to say, he is a public figure that the whole world respected and loved,” said Havana student Sariel Valdespino.

    But in Miami, where many exiles from Castro’s Communist government live, a large crowd waving Cuban flags cheered, danced and banged on pots and pans.

    Castro’s body will be cremated, according to his wishes. Cuba declared nine days of mourning, during which time the ashes will be taken to different parts of the country. A burial ceremony will be held on Dec. 4.

    The bearded Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.

    He was demonized by the United States and its allies but admired by many leftists around the world, especially socialist revolutionaries in Latin America and Africa.

    Nelson Mandela, once freed from prison in 1990, repeatedly thanked Castro for his firm efforts in helping to weaken apartheid.

    In April, in a rare public appearance at the Communist Party conference, Fidel Castro shocked party apparatchiks by referring to his own imminent mortality.

    “Soon I will be like all the rest. Our turn comes to all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain,” he said.

    Castro was last seen by ordinary Cubans in photos showing him engaged in conversation with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang earlier this month.

    Transforming Cuba from a playground for rich Americans into a symbol of resistance to Washington, Castro crossed swords with 10 U.S. presidents while in power, and outlasted nine of them.

    He fended off a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 as well as countless assassination attempts.

    His alliance with Moscow helped trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13-day showdown with the United States that brought the world the closest it has been to nuclear war.

     

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