News / Interviews

Castro proved it is possible to stand up to US imperialism: Activist

Saturday, 26 November 2016 5:11 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 26 November 2016 5:14 PM ]

This handout picture released by Cubadebate on July 26, 2010, shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro during a ceremony to pay homage to national hero Jose Marti at the Jose Marti Memorial in Havana. (Photo by AFP)

The legendary leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, has died, the Cuban president and his brother has announced. Castro was 90.

A radio host, journalist and political activist believes Fidel Castro proved to the world that it was possible to stand up to US imperialism, adding that he showed people how to fight for their independence and to maintain it.

“Revolution is not usually a particular heroic act or magical event but a lot of hard work by a lot of people over a long period of time and I think that the enduring example of the Cuban Revolution with many different individual acts that it took ... are things that he [Castro] helped to organize and carry around the world,” Don DeBar told Press TV.

He also argued if it were not for the work of Castro and the people who helped to build the Cuban Revolution, perhaps apartheid would still exist in South Africa, and Angola would still be a Portuguese colony.

DeBar further stated anywhere there is resistance against the hegemonic activity of the United States, there will be “hostility” from Washington.

“So as other countries around the world find solidarity in fact because they are opposing the same hegemony on the ground every day, you are going to see the hostility of US power against them whether it is Iran, Russia, China, Brazil, Argentina, wherever,” he said.

According to the activist, the example Cuba shows to the world, that a tiny country with only a few million people on it can stand on its own for more than 55 years.

Castro famously led a guerrilla campaign that gained popular support and ousted US-backed Cuban dictator General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. He was then named prime minister.

Leading a Communist Cuba, Castro broke off diplomatic ties with the Capitalist United States in 1961 and expropriated US companies’ assets totaling more than one billion dollars.

Castro ruled Cuba for five decades, until 2006, when he temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul because he had to undergo surgery. The transfer of power became official in 2008.

During his revolutionary life, the United States’ spy agency, the CIA, attempted to assassinate him numerous times.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk