Fidel Castro has left an indelible mark on Cuban history. In half a century he has transformed his country, which was under the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship and the US yoke, into an independent nation respected for its courage and its altruism.

Despite the economic sanctions to which it is subjected Cuba has freed itself from underdevelopment.

International organisations, from the UN to the World Bank, recognise that Cuba is alone in the Third World in obtaining a level of human development comparable to that of the most advanced countries. Since 1962 Cuba has also given care to poor people throughout the world. Cuba is often stigmatised by Washington over human rights. Unlike the rest of the continent there has been no case of assassination or torture reported in Cuba since 1959. You need only look at Amnesty International reports to realise that neither the US nor the EU have moral authority to give lessons to Cubans.

Cuban soldiers also helped to eliminate apartheid. As Nelson Mandela said: “What other country can claim to have been as altruistic as Cuba in its relations with Africa?”

Castro's only crime of lèse-majesté is to have refused to have bowed to the powerful, to have stayed true to his principles and believe that another, less cruel world is possible.

Salim Lamrani is a French writer and journalist specialising in relations between Cuba and the US. He has published Double Morale. Cuba, l'Union européenne et les droits de l'homme (Paris, Editions Estrella, 2008).