Senator Bernie Sanders was filmed giving a 1986 lecture in which he praised the Cuban revolution led by Communist ruler Fidel Castro.

‘I remember being very excited when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba,’ Sanders is seen telling students at the University of Vermont in 1986.

‘It seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against ugly rich people.’

Sanders was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, at the time the tape was recorded, which was posted to Twitter on Wednesday by a user called, The Reagan Battalion.

He told the students how he became so disillusioned by John F. Kennedy when he ran for president in the early 1960s that he wanted to ‘puke’ because of his hardline anti-communist stance.

Video posted to social media shows Senator Bernie Sanders praising Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution during a lecture to students at the University of Vermont in 1986. Sanders was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, at the time

Video: @BernieSanders, University of Vermont, 1986, recalls his excitement watching Castro’s revolution “rising up against the ugly rich people.” & his sick feeling watching JFK speak out against communism in Cuba.



Also bashes the @nytimes for lying about communism. pic.twitter.com/OUqzLFbsvz — Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 21, 2019

‘Kennedy was saying Nixon was too soft on communism in Cuba,’ Sanders said.

‘For the first time in my adult life, what I was seeing is the Democrats and Republicans ... clearly that there really wasn't a whole lot of difference between the two.’

Sanders is one of the leading candidates in the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

The senator from Vermont is a well-known - and self-described - democratic socialist, and has remained independent in the Senate even though he caucuses with Democrats.

He was elected to the U.S. House in 1991 and to the Senate in 2007.

This is not the first time that 30-year-old clips have surfaced showing Sanders making controversial remarks about American foreign policy toward communist countries in Latin America.

During his unsuccessful bid to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary in 2015-16, a video from 1985 was dredged up in which Sanders is seen heaping praise on Castro.

The grainy 1985 interview footage from Chittenden County, Vermont, shows Sanders praising Castro's policies on education, health care and society in general.

Sanders, the senator from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, is a leading candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president

At the time, Sanders had been on a recent trip to Nicaragua to observe the sixth anniversary of the Sandinista regime.

He compared Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega - who is now president of Nicaragua - to Castro.

'In 1961, [America] invaded Cuba, and everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world,' he said.

'All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro.

‘They forgot that he educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed society.

'You know, not to say Fidel Castro and Cuba are perfect - they are certainly not - but just because Ronald Reagan dislikes these people does not mean to say the people in these nations feel the same.'

Indeed Sanders was sharply critical of Reagan, who had just been overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term the year before.

'If President Reagan thinks that any time a government comes along, which in its wisdom, rightly or wrongly, is doing the best for its people, he has the right to overthrow that government, you're going to be at war not only with all of Latin America, but with the entire Third World,' Sanders said.

Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2008, when he turned over control of the country to his brother, Raul. A Cold War foe of the U.S., Castro’s government imprisoned dissidents and imposed one-party rule on the island nation. He is pictured above in 2000

Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2008, when he turned over control of the country to his brother, Raul.

A Cold War foe of the U.S., Castro’s government imprisoned dissidents and imposed one-party rule on the island nation.

Ortega has ruled Nicaragua for more than four decades. The Sandinista movement of which he is apart has also been accused of widespread human rights violations in the impoverished Central American country.

In November 2016, Sanders appeared on ABC News’ This Week, where he was asked about his comments praising Castro.

‘No, of course, [the Cuban] economy is terrible,’ he told host Martha Raddatz.

‘You're right, it is a dictatorship. They did have a good health - do have a decent health care system and a decent educational system.

‘A lot of people have left Cuba for better dreams, to fulfill their aspirations.

‘So, no, the Cuban economy is a disaster. No, I do not praise Fidel Castro.’