00:00Several countries have commemorated today the 100th anniversary of the birth of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro
00:07Ruz,
00:08especially those ones from the global south, as Fidel was a symbol of the resistance in this area, in this
00:16region.
00:16And for this, and to help us analyze and delve deeper in this matter, we welcome now our analyst and
00:23expert in international law, Yvonne Tellez.
00:26Hello, Yvonne. It's always a pleasure to have you here from the south.
00:30Hello, Lorena. Thank you very much.
00:32Thanks to you. Well, at first, so we can delve deeper in this matter about Fidel Castro's legacy.
00:40What role did Fidel, the long-standing campaign against neoliberalism, play in empowering the movements in Latin America,
00:49or social movements in governments in Latin America?
00:54Okay, today, I think, on the centenary of his birth, I think his influence on his legacy remains both influential
01:07and deeply contested at the same time.
01:10Because I think that Fidel changed the vocabulary of Latin American politics because he placed sovereignty, social justice, social equality,
01:23and imperialism,
01:24and the regional solidarity at the center of the political debate.
01:30So I think he remains important because, in a way, the Cuban revolution transformed the regional political imagination.
01:41I think it also demonstrated that a very small country, such as Cuba, could challenge the established hemispheric order and
01:54try to assert a very independent foreign policy.
02:00So I think he, well, we know that he inspired all the revolutionary and the national liberation movements.
02:07And I think that how he understood liberation as part of this struggle against colonialism, racial domination, foreign intervention, and
02:24economic dependency
02:25remains at the core of the movements, social movements, political movements that fight,
02:34and, in a way, struggle against this economic and neoliberal domination, and the current tendencies that come from the right
02:49and from the established powers, as we know them today.
02:54And also, in today's context, how does the figure and also visions of Fidel Castro Ruz continue to help the
03:02struggle for unity in Latin America?
03:06I think that the relevance of Fidel's legacy is still present in Latin American, the Latin American political context.
03:24Not in Latin American political context.
03:26Not in the replication of the Cuban system or how it was drawn a long time ago, because if we
03:37take today's, the current situation, Latin America in 2026,
03:44it's politically fragmented.
03:47Several countries have moved to the right.
03:50We have issues such as security, organized crime, migrations, inequality, institutional distrust.
03:58I think the erosion of democratic institutions and of democracy itself, and economic stagnation.
04:08So this has had an impact on the traditional political movements.
04:14So, and we have regional and differentiated relationships with the foreign powers, the current powers, and I'm talking about the
04:25United States, China, for example, and other emergent powers.
04:30So I think that in this context, the Fidel's emphasis on sovereignty and regional coordination is what remains relevant.
04:41Because I think that in this context, I think that in this context is what remains relevant.
04:43Because I don't think that any Latin American country can confront the transnational organized crime and the issues that I
04:51mentioned before without cooperation, I mean in isolation.
04:57So I think that with the inclusion of the human rights discourse and the human rights standards, we can think
05:15about a Latin American project that is based on non-intervention and also on human rights.
05:25I also want to ask you to close this interview, what are the strategic insights that the current anti-imperialist
05:33government, not only for Latin America, but also for the global south, can draw from the doctrine of national defense
05:43and popular resistance
05:45and that Fidel has always defended of all his life and also all of his movement and all of his
05:55also struggle for Cuba and for Latin America.
06:01Okay, well, moving a little bit, as you said, as you said, not just Latin America, but the whole global
06:12south, I think that what we can retain from his legacy is the defense of sovereignty and non-intervention.
06:19I think that the conviction of that extreme inequality and poverty is a political problem, not just an economic problem.
06:30I think that also another very, very strong and core issue is the commitment to universal education and healthcare.
06:44I also think that one of the main things will be the solidarity with the anti-colonial struggles, regional cooperation,
06:54south-to-south dialogue.
06:56And I think that also the conviction that smaller states can also influence international affairs.
07:08I think that those are some of the values or core or main points within his legacy that could be
07:16taken and could be very present in today's political and social struggles.
07:22Yvonne, thank you so much for your valuable analysis to Front the South.
07:26As always, a pleasure to share this interview with you.
07:30Thank you. Thank you, Lorena, for the invitation.
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