By Rubén G. Abelenda on November Nov 21, 2022
In these sad days, as the sixth anniversary of the departure of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution approaches on November 25, I heard an African friend say that he would have given more than 20 years of his life for Fidel Castro to be physically among us today.
Such words silenced several people who participated in a dialogue in which we remembered the Commander-in-Chief of the Caribbean island, and in which we agreed, after a sepulchral silence, that humanity would be better off with his always steadfast walk everywhere and his vision of the future.
It was Fidel who said for the first time that a better world is possible, when not a few years ago he warned that our species and planet Earth were in danger of disappearing because of wars, aggressions, blockades, the unbridled arms race, extreme greed and damage to nature, among other evils that have us on the brink of holocaust.
Everything that the visionary from the largest of the largest Antilles foretold, we are currently suffering in the five continents, from war conflicts and disasters caused by climate change, to diseases and pandemics such as Covid-19, which have caused and still cause so many deaths.
The long light of the leader of the Cuban Revolution could show us the path to take to try to overcome so many adversities and provide hope in the face of the uncertainty that currently torments the vast majority of human beings.
A giant like him, respected and admired in every corner of the planet, could surely help us to get out, with the accurate compass of his thinking, of the rough and dangerous tunnel through which we walk.
Six years after his death, his compatriots keep repeating a phrase from a beautiful song entitled Cabalgando con Fidel that says: “today I want to cry out to you my father, don’t let go of my hand, I still don’t know how to walk well without you”.
And there is not a single day that Cubans do not remember Fidel, whom they consider their eternal guide, as is also expressed by millions of people in all nations of the world, especially in the most dispossessed nations of Africa and Latin America, to whom he offered his unconditional solidarity.
It is understandable then that we hear many men and women, wherever we are, expressing that they would give more than two decades of their lives for the historic leader of the dean island of the Caribbean to be physically present.
And the fact is that Fidel is Fidel, and he will be forever in the hearts of the people, and no one will ever be able to erase his immense legacy.
Rubén G. Abelenda is a journalist and the Cuban Ambassador to Gambia
Source: Network in Defense of Humanity (REDH) translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US