The Minnesota Cuba Committee joins millions across the world in mourning the passing of Fidel Castro. He leaves behind a legacy of steadfast commitment to the fight for a better world.

As leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro faced more than 50 years of a cruel and inhumane United States economic blockade, and survived multiple CIA assassination attempts. Fidel and Cuba also inspired liberation movements around the world, actively supporting them throughout Latin America and Africa.

Under Fidel’s leadership, Cuba sent thousands of health and education professionals across the world. Cuba’s literacy program has taught millions to read outside of Cuba, while Cuban doctors contributed greatly to combating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Fidel also played a vital role in the emergence of progressive movements in Latin America, beginning with Hugo Chavez’s election in Venezuela in 1998. The two leaders led a regional coordination which produced victories in Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua, along with progressive governments in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

As expected, however, much of the United States media is presenting a distorted image of Cuban society that completely omits the effects of the cruelly-punishing United States economic blockade, a policy that failed to gain the support of even one nation in the most recent vote in the United Nations General Assembly.

MN Cuba

The committee was founded in the Twin Cities in1990 and is committed to the sovereignty and self-determination of Cuba.

Editor’s Note: This letter has been edited to omit the solicitation of an event that has already passed. It has been edited for style conventions.