Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day sent a let­ter ex­press­ing con­do­lences to Cu­ba Pres­i­dent Raul Cas­tro on be­half of this coun­try on the death of his big broth­er Fi­del.

"On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, it is with great sad­ness that I ex­tend deep­est con­do­lences to the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Cu­ba and to his fam­i­ly on the pass­ing of for­mer Pres­i­dent, Fi­del Cas­tro, who was one of the world's longest serv­ing lead­ers," Row­ley said.

Row­ley said Fi­del Cas­tro's death sig­nalled the "end of an icon­ic pe­ri­od of his­to­ry."

"The peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and in­deed many of our Cari­com na­tions, have long en­joyed cor­dial diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with Cu­ba. The pass­ing of Fi­del Cas­tro marks an end of an icon­ic pe­ri­od of his­to­ry not on­ly for the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can Re­gion, but al­so for the world," Row­ley said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar:

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed Cas­tro as a "po­lit­i­cal colos­sus."

"Cas­tro's life and his con­trol over Cu­ba, his per­son­al ef­forts at im­prov­ing the lives of his peo­ple and his role on glob­al stage have al­ready en­gaged the at­ten­tion of his­to­ri­ans of dif­fer­ent so­cial and po­lit­i­cal stripe," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

"The en­dur­ing lega­cy of the man who fea­tured in some of the world's most icon­ic dra­mas will no doubt live on in his­to­ry and in leg­end. To­day I join the Cuban peo­ple and the world in mourn­ing the pass­ing of this po­lit­i­cal colos­sus, Mr Fi­del Cas­tro. May his soul find eter­nal peace," she said.

"To­day we mourn the pass­ing of a small man who be­came the great­est leader in the west­ern hemi­sphere. We send con­do­lences to the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Cu­ba and all those whose lives Pres­i­dent Cas­tro touched. ..He was a Caribbean man like we are. His mes­sage of equal­i­ty will en­dure for­ev­er," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

His­to­ry will ab­solve him

Head of the Caribbean Col­lec­tive for Jus­tice Naz­ma Muller met Fi­del Cas­tro when she went to the Cu­ba-Cari­com sum­mit in Ha­vana in 2003 as a jour­nal­ist.

"When I fi­nal­ly met Fi­del in 2003, I had one ques­tion to ask: 'What is your mes­sage to the youth of the Caribbean?' He thought for a few sec­onds and then he said, 'We have so much tal­ent and re­sources in the re­gion, that if we work to­geth­er in sol­i­dar­i­ty and broth­er­hood, the fu­ture is ours. The youths hold the fu­ture in their hands. We must be­lieve in them and give them the tools to change the world'," she said.

"I tru­ly be­lieve his­to­ry will ab­solve him," she said.

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