Vincentians and Cuban Embassy mark 100 years of Fidel Castro’s birth

by DEXTER ROSE

IN A SOLEMN and intimate activity the Embassy of Cuba last Thursday, August 13,2026 celebrated the 100 birthday and legacy of the late revolutionary leader Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, in Kingstown.

The celebration of remembrance took the form of addresses by Acting Prime Minister Daniel Cummings, Opposition Leader Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Bernard Hamilton, Coordinator of the SVG Cuba Friendship Society and retired Ambassador Dexter Rose, while host Ambassador Carlos Ernesto Rodriguez Etcheverry chaired the session.

The celebration was done amidst a very friendly atmosphere attended by sitting SVG Ambassador to Cuba Angela Jackson, immediate past Ambassador Ellsworth John, and invitees.

Acting Prime Minister Cummings recalled that it was former Prime Minister Sir James who, in 1992 established formal diplomatic relations with Cuba. He acknowledged the contribution of Cuba to the provision of university education for many Vincentian professionals and stressed that had it not been for Cuba, we in St Vincent & the Grenadines would have been struggling to provide a good quality of medical care for our people.

The Acting Prime Minister, who has the ministerial portfolio of Health and the Environment, and Energy, told the audience that his government is very grateful for the bonds of friendship established when Fidel Castro was still president.

He noted that it was testament to the skill and personality of the Cuban leader that he was able to withstand so many assassination attempts while he led his nation.

He said his government looks forward to the noble dream of freedom and self determination for Cuba in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

This forum presented a rare opportunity in which representatives from the Government and the Opposition met in an ambience which was not adversarial, and Opposition Leader Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who spoke just before the Acting Prime Minister, took time to reminisce on his very personal friendship with the then Cuban President over the years.

Gonsalves recalled how it had been Fidel who had raised the issue of the construction of the Modern Medical and Diagnostic Center, as was being done by the Cuban Government in Venezuela at that time.

He also spoke of the role of Cuba in the construction of the Argyle International Airport which was done with the help of Cuban engineers and workers at all levels.

Gonsalves intimated to the audience gathered that he had been invited to Havana for the series of activities which were culminating at the same time that the forum in Kingstown was in progress. He had, however, encountered flight difficulties and would not have been able to make it from Scotland to Havana via Spain in time.

Former Ambassador Rose, who had graduated from a Cuban university in Journalism many years before he was called upon to establish the Embassy of SVG in Havana, reminisced about the occasions he had encountered the Cuban Leader in person and the impact that he had had on his life.

Rose was followed by Bernard Hamilton, the Coordinator of the SVG Cuba Friendship Society who himself had graduated in Economics from a Cuban university in 1988 and had gone on to a successful career in banking. He recalled how the Society has been founded by the late Renwick Rose and reminded of the activities it had carried out in solidarity with Cuba, the latest being a fundraising drive and a motorcade through the streets of Kingstown.

The activity ended with a documentary on the work in Diplomacy of Fidel Castro during his years at the helm of the Cuban Revolutionary process.