You should exercise all your immense moral force to keep South Africa away from U.S. military bases and NATO: Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.

July 19, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, on the occasion of Nelson Mandela Day coinciding the South African anti-apartheid leader’s birth day, in a letter called Mandela an old and prestigious friend, always happy to see him as a symbol of freedom, justice and humanity.

Fidel Castro, in his letter also asked the South African anti-apartheid leader and former President, Neslon Mandela, to keep his country away from U.S. military bases and NATO. ‘You should exercise all your immense moral force to keep South Africa away from U.S. military bases and NATO,’ said Castro in Cuba’s official government website Cubadebate on Sunday. 

The former South African President now 92 on Sunday, had spent nearly three decades of his life in prison controlled by a white supremacist regime which governed the mineral-rich country under a prejudiced constitution. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to multi-racial democracy in 1994 and served as president from 1994 to 1999, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation. 

Cuba’s Legendry leader himself met Mandela in Habana in 1991 following Mandela’s release from prison and decorated him with the Jose Marti’s Order, the highest honor in Cuba.