Cuba, Fidel Castro, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and Bangladesh

 

“The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts,
nothing can isolate them - neither prison walls nor the sod of
cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea,
a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.”
–––  Fidel Castro

Comrade Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926 in Biran, Cuba and died on November 25, 2016 in Havana, Cuba. Bangladesh and Cuba carried same objectives, ideologies to a great extent in the past.

Diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Cuba were officially started in 1972, right after the independence of Bangladesh.

I recall with my highest regards - embracing Bangladesh’s Founding Father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Non-Aligned Summit in Algiers in 1973, Fidel Castro remarked, "I have not seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujib. In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas." With utmost gratitude and honour to the memories of the former Cuban revolutionary leader, every freedom loving people in Bangladesh will remember these words forever.

Fidel Castro played a great supporting role in the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, and our government on 24 March, 2013 under the Premiership of Sheikh Hasina honoured him highest honour with “MuktijuddoMoitree Sommanona” (“Friends of the War of Liberation”) for his contribution.

After Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista overthrow in 1959, Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro entered Havana. Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's prime minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic embargo, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962.

He was in power for 49 years ((August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016).

Hold back within …
Fidel Castro rides into Havana alongside his fellow revolutionaries Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos after leading his rebel army to victory over the forces of the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Castro launched his audacious rebellion after a spell in jail and then exile in Mexico after a failed coup against Batista in 1953.
He met Guevara, who went on to be his second-in-command, in Mexico City where he and brother Raul launched the 26th of July Movement in 1954to overthrow the Cuban dictatorship.

In 1956, alongside 82 rebel fighters, they set sail for Cuba to wage a two-year guerrilla war against Batista, finally seizing power in January 1959.

Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent.

Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage.

Following the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "Special Period", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide" – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and formed the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006, Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008.

The longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries, Castro polarized opinion throughout the world. His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary government advanced economic and social justice while securing Cuba's independence from U.S. hegemony.

At 32, Castro became the youngest leader in Latin America.

After Castro forms close ties with the Soviet bloc, the United States begins working to oust him, cutting purchases of sugar, Cuba's economic mainstay. Castro, in turn, confiscates all US assets on the island including its oil refineries. Washington responds by imposing a trade embargo, banning virtually all US exports to Cuba except for food and medicine.

It goes on to sever diplomatic ties on 3 January, 1961.

Castro declares his revolution to be socialist, and the next day about 1,400 Cuban exiles storm the beach at the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's south coast with the aim of overthrowing the increasingly left-wing regime.

Backed by the CIA, the invaders enjoy some early successes but they lack air and sea cover and are defeated after three days. It is a hugely embarrassing turn of events for the US but a great victory for Castro, who took personal command of the Cuban forces and becomes a national hero.
The debacle also serves to strengthen ties between the Havana and Moscow. A Soviet cargo ship loaded with missiles on its way back to Russia from Cuba in 1962.

In response to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agrees to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles on the island. The agreement was reached at a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Castro in July 1962 and work on a number of missiles launch facilities starts later that summer.

The US replies by setting up a military blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba and demands those already there be dismantled and returned to the USSR.

After a tense stand-off, Krushchev agrees and the whole world breathes a sigh of relief. It was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full nuclear conflict.

Castro continues to tighten his grip on the economy and after taking over almost all private businesses he cancels all Christmas celebrations. He says the sugar harvest, which takes place at that time of year, is vital to Cuba's economy and nothing must be allowed to get in its way.

Despite widespread protests, the ban remains in force until December 1997, just before Pope John Paul II's visit to the island. Castro declared that, for that year only, Christmas would become a national holiday again, but the change stuck.

Some 75 opponents of the Castro regime are sent to prison as part of an island-wide crackdown on dissidents. Among those convicted for allegedly "working with a foreign power (the US) to undermine the Government" were the poet and journalist Raul Rivero.

Half of the dissidents on trial had organized a petition calling for reforms to Cuba's one-party state. It was the first significant challenge to Castro's rule in four decades and a sign of growing unrest on Cuba.

Castro announces he has had surgery for "an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding" and temporarily cedes power to his younger brother Raul. He continues to struggle with ill health and in February 2008 he resigns as president after half a century in power.

In July 2010 after two and a half years in seclusion, he appears in public once again with a visit to a scientific institute. The following April, Castro is replaced by his brother Raul as first secretary of the Communist Party, his last official post.

He makes a brief appearance at the party's Congress, looking frail as a young aide guides him to his seat. Castro delivers a valedictory speech at the Communist Party's seventh Congress.

He declares, "Soon I'll be like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain.” He further stated, “Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.”

Eight months later Castro's death is announced on state television by Raul who says he passed away at 10.29pm local time on Friday 25 November, 2016. Raul says his brother, who was 90, will be cremated before a period of state mourning.

To end-up, I echo the words of Fidel Castro, “I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.” Joy Fidel Castro. Joy Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib.  Joy Cuba. Joy Cuban people. Joy Bangladesh.

 
Anwar A. Khan is a freedom
fighter who writes on politics
and international affairs.