Fidel Castro

Today, the 99th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro (1926-2016), Afshin Rattansi (@AfshinRattansi), the presenter of RT's Going Underground, posted to X/Twitter following four minutes speech by Fidel Castro that he gave to the United Nations in 1979. That video is included below. In that speech, he explained that, instead of bombing remote parts of the world, Cuba sends hundreds of doctors to help fight disease and improve the health of people in those regions.

The Cuban Revolution

On January 1 1959, Fidel Castro, Che Guavara and the guerilla army they led, known as the July 26 Movement, overthrew the corrupt government of Fulgencio Batista. The new Cuban government commenced a program for the benefit of the poorest Cubans including the confiscation of land of the wealthiest landholders and redistributing that land to over 100,000 peasants. As a consequence of such reforms, the United States began a campaign to overthrow the Cuban government which continues to this day. This includes a trade embargo and support for covert military action against the Cuban government and the more overt Bay of Pigs invasion, which was launched on 17 April 1961.