Such is the legacy that Fidel leaves behind that it is impossible to fully comprehend the sheer magnitude of the role he played in breaking the chains of millions across the Third World, both literally and figuratively, in defiance of the racist conceit of apologists for imperialism. From leading a revolution that succeeded against the odds in toppling the pro-Washington dictator, Fulgencio Batista in 1959, he went on to not only make history but mould and shape it thereafter.
When he first came to world prominence as leader of the Cuban Revolution at the age of 30, rolling into Havana on a captured tank under a blazing Caribbean sun, the long beards, unkempt hair and anarchic energy that he and his comrades carried cemented their place as harbingers of a new chapter in the development of the global South. With daring, courage, and belief they proved it was possible to break the chains of exploitation, injustice, and degradation that had scarred the lives of so many generations before them, forging in their place a future of justice, human solidarity, and dignity.
