Remembering Fidel Castro, a Hero of the World’s Oppressed People

Opinion by Anis Chowdhury (sydney)Wednesday, August 19, 2026Inter Press Service SYDNEY, August 19 (IPS) - The 13th of August marked the 100th birthday of Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz – in short Fidel Castro. Amidst an intensified US siege and the threat of invasion, Cubans commemorated their dear leader’s centenary birth anniversary with events that included an International Book Fair, art exhibitions, concerts and gatherings of delegates from left-wing organisations across the continent. Anis ChowdhuryCuba has withstood more than 6 decades of an illegal US economic blockade – i.e., not authorised by the United Nations Security Council – since its revolution in 1959. It defeated the CIA-backed military invasion (the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion) by the Cubans who fled to the US after the Revolution. Castro survived CIA’s 638 assassination attempts. Wayne Smith, a US diplomat with a long experience in Cuba, believes Fidel Castro will be remembered because “he stood up to the United States and survived”. When Castro died in 2016, the leading US news media CBS carried an opinion piece, entitled, “How Fidel Castro stood up to the U.S., and won”. The illegal block...