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Love him or hate him, Fidel Castro was a political giant. Not only was he revered by a large majority of Cubans, but he was held in great esteem by people throughout the global south.

Borrowing from Cuba’s tragic colonial past under the Spaniards and U.S. subservience and dependence, “El comandante” Fidel was the chief architect of Cuban foreign policy in the post-1959 era. Area specialists have long said that revolutionary Cuba has punched well above its weight internationally.

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Like the man himself, Cuba – a tiny developing nation, and a population of barely 11 million – was considered a country of enormous stature, a miniature superpower, if you will. Under Castro’s leadership, Cuba not only talked big, but it acted big as well.

With Castro at the helm and a keen eye toward the father of Cuban independence, José Martí, Cuba’s foreign policy since 1959 has been based on four central guiding principles: a will to grandeur, international solidarity, counter-dependency and a duty to serve others. Irrespective of the circumstances, and the circumstances were certainly grim economically after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba stayed true to these long-held ideals and precepts.