Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba's deputy minister of foreign affairs, today called for increased dissemination of Fidel's thinking as a means of ending injustice in every corner of the planet, speaking during the second day of the First International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future."

Fernández de Cossío's remarks opened the forum dedicated to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution's contributions to diplomacy, held in the presence of Politburo members Roberto Morales Ojeda, Salvador Valdés Mesa, and Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who serve respectively as secretary of organization of the Central Committee, vice president of the Republic, and foreign minister.

The diplomat emphasized that Fidel's teachings remain essential to clearly understanding Cuba's positions on the international stage.

Before an audience that exceeded the venue's capacity and applauded at several points, the deputy minister highlighted the Commander in Chief's political and diplomatic handling of the October Crisis of 1962, which led Che Guevara to write in his farewell letter that "rarely has a statesman shone brighter than in those days."

Regarding those events, which stemmed from negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) conducted without Cuba's presence, Fernández de Cossío praised Fidel's defense of national sovereignty and recalled one of the ideas he championed then and throughout his life: that Cuba was prepared to pay whatever price necessary to defend its rights.

He also addressed the Fidelista principle of never negotiating the country's commitments of solidarity with adversaries, citing as an example Cuba's responses to the United States government during negotiations in which Washington attempted to introduce issues outside the bilateral agenda, including Cuba's support for independence movements in Puerto Rico and Africa.

Regarding the neighboring island, Fidel consistently upheld the historical grounds justifying solidarity with its right to independence, a position he expressed through Cuba's advocacy at the United Nations and other international forums. With respect to Africa, he maintained that support for the continent would always remain outside the scope of any negotiation.

He also recalled Cuba's rejection of attempts by the Ronald Reagan administration in the United States to make any potential improvement in trade relations between Washington and Havana contingent on ending Cuban support for Latin America, particularly Nicaragua.

Fernández de Cossío stressed that, despite the complexities of today's global landscape, Cuba's principles of solidarity remain unchanged.

The diplomat further discussed Fidel's continued denunciation of the unjust international order and his proposals to reverse it by redirecting the vast resources spent on the global arms race.

The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, the diplomat noted, was ahead of his time in addressing the environmental consequences of accelerating climate change.

On the way Fidel built his arguments, Fernández de Cossío praised his ability to connect seemingly unrelated issues, his intellectual discipline, his rigor in handling data, and his intellectual curiosity, highlighting his Marxist and Leninist approach and methods, applied without dogmatism.

The forum "Fidel and the Foreign Policy of the Cuban Revolution" also included two panel discussions and featured moving moments, with several messages sent by prominent figures from the global left.