Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 27, 2016 (SKNIS)—Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, has expressed solidarity and offered condolences to the Cuban people on the death of their leader, Comandante Fidel Castro, who came to power in the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
Castro, who ruled the Caribbean nation of Cuba with 11 million people for almost 50 years, died on Friday, November 25. He was 90. After years of declining health with diverticulitis, Castro provisionally ceded power in 1996 to his younger brother Raúl, now 85, and two years later formally resigned as president. Only Queen Elizabeth the Second of England has held on to power as any other national leader longer than Castro. Castro stuck to his ideals, whether loved or hated.
In a tweet a day ago, Prime Minister Harris said “We extend our condolences to the people of Cuba on the passing of Fidel Castro. May he rest in peace,” while Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Mark Brantley said “The world has lost its last revolutionary. But even in death Fidel lives! My deep condolences to the people of Cuba.”
The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis enjoys a deep and meaningful partnership with the Republic of Cuba. Cuba has partnered with St. Kitts and Nevis, especially in the area of educational advancement in providing scholarships to pursue studies in the Spanish-speaking country in areas such as medicine and engineering, and has also partnered in the provision of health care.
St. Kitts and Nevis is represented in Cuba by Chargé d’affaires Verna Morris-Mills at the St. Kitts-Nevis Embassy in Havana and Cuba is represented in St. Kitts and Nevis by Cuban Ambassador, His Excellency Hugo Ruíz Cabrera, at the Cuban Embassy in Basseterre.
Castro is quoted as saying that “A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.”